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The Wapshot Chronicle
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12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

The Wapshot Chronicle

novel by Cheever
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Article History

The Wapshot Chronicle, novel by John Cheever, published in 1957 and granted a National Book Award in 1958. Based in part on Cheever’s adolescence in New England, the novel takes place in a small Massachusetts fishing village and relates the breakdown of both the Wapshot family and the town. Part One focuses on Leander, a gentle ferryboat operator harried by his tyrannical wife and his eccentric sister; he eventually swims out to sea and never returns. Part Two chronicles the disastrous lives of Leander’s sons, Coverly and Moses. Told in a comic rather than a tragic vein, the novel uses experimental prose techniques to convey a nostalgic vision of a lost world. A sequel, The Wapshot Scandal, was published in 1964.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.