An Unlikely Couple

I am reading the complete collected novels of John Cheever.

He wrote five novels and I have them all together in one book. Pretty slick, eh?

He wrote a ton of short stories, and I have a big, fat book of his short stories. I don't know if the book contains all of his short stories, but there are a helluva lot of them in there. I read that years ago. 

I love John Cheever.

Because...................he describes life honestly, in my humble opinion. But he does it in an intelligent, literary, biting kind of way. In other words his stories are not disturbingly dark from start to finish, he doesn't bang you over the head with "pessimism", but as he tells the story, reality slips in, in the way he describes a character, or in something a character says, or in something that happens to a character or between characters.

And when that happens you shake your head and cringe at the cruelness of life and humanity, and you despair at the parallels in your own life.

The recurring theme that I detect is that life is boring, life is less than we all want it to be, people are predictable and not in a good way, dreams die and bad things happen, and happiness is quite elusive.

This is my interpretation and it is colored by the lens of my perspective. But, as The Eagles sang in Victim of Love - "I could be wrong but I'm not, no I'm not".

Typically when I come across words that connect with me as I read, I share them with you. I am into the second novel in this collection and have given up on writing down page numbers. There are so many things that Cheever writes that indict the human race for cruelty/stupidity/callousness/selfishness/greed and more, that I cannot keep up.

Suffice it to say I love his writing style, I dig the stories, and I treasure his joyful skewering of the human race.

Bizarre Segue: This is also why I love Marc Maron. You can call him dark if you want to, call him a pessimist - I think he speaks the truth. His opinions resonate with me. And his sense of humor makes me laugh. That is a bonus, baby - if you can be honest about life in your opinions, and turn around and make comedy out of what you see, you are a gifted human deserving of appreciation.

My theme here is that there is nothing wrong with describing life as it truly is. We all know but most will not openly admit, that life can be drudgery, it can be boring, it can be disappointing. It can be painful. 

Blasphemy, you say. Suck it up - pretend that everything is cool. Lie about your feelings, no one gives a damn anyway. Project faux happiness, even though everybody can see through your feeble act.

I would much prefer someone to tell me they hate their fucking job, need to make a lot more money and their marriage is a sham. That is called communication. Truth. Faux happiness is an act. A lie.

Marc Maron, talking to Lindsey Buckingham in Maron's podcast, was discussing the lyrics to a song Lindsey had written about rocky relationships.  Marc described them as "comforting but not hopeful', which Lindsey agreed with.

I love that. What a great description. Comforting but not hopeful. It is a nakedly honest assessment. That is about all you can expect from a lot of things in life. 

He was in no way being negative - he said it as a statement of fact. He was also not implying that the song was disappointing because of that, or that the song was depressing. He said it as if the lyrics were an accurate reflection of life.

I have nothing against people trying to achieve happiness. I am against dishonesty. If you are not happy, don't pretend to be, but don't give up. Work at it.

I can sense faux happiness at 300 yards, so don't waste my fucking time. But there are a lot of you out there prancing around the stage of your life imagining yourselves to be Shakespearean actors.

You are not. You are transparent.

You are the reason I crave John Cheever and Marc Maron.

And..............................