Bullet Park

By: John Cheever

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

In this dark suburban drama, Cheever concerns himself with the two neighbors: Eliot Nailles, who loves his wife and son to distraction, and Paul Hammer, who, according to Nailles, is a bastard named after a common household tool. The pair soon become fatefully linked by the mysterious binding power of their names.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of John Cheever's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Blake Bailey about the life and work of John Cheever – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.©1969 John Cheever (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The tone of a summing-up and the tension of a vision." (The New York Times)

"John Cheever is an enchanted realist, and his voice, in his luminous short stories and in incomparable novels like Bullet Park and Falconer, is as rich and distinctive as any of the leading voices of postwar American literature." (Philip Roth)

Nice Cheever

I stumbled upon Cheever as THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES was on the Modern Library Critics 100 List (which I really liked) then I found Cheever wrote one of my favorite short stories THE SWIMMER. So I added all Cheever Audible to my todo list.

Bullet Park is classic Cheever but I liked Wapshot and Falconer better.
Bullet Park has subtle wit, and examines suburban America from the inside out with a meandering story and odd characters. Bullet Park has a lot in common with Wapshot, but Wapshot is more complete and balanced.

The narration was excellect for the story.

A writer's writing

More than half a century after its publication BP plays out as a young(ish) writer's work. It seems as much a demonstration of a writer's mastery of the skills of his trade as anything else.

Its sneering depiction of 50s American suburbia is peopled with characters that never quite become three dimensional. Then even its strong sense of temporal location is diminished when, well into its narrative, we learn its time is supposed to be the Vietnam era 60s. LBJ? Nixon? No, this is still Ike all the way.

A youthful work taken from the bottom drawer and quickly time-shifted for publication? Perhaps. An overuse of classical and literary allusions contributes to a callow quality in the writing.

The reading is flat and suggests a crime genre style. Worth listening to, but only just.

Cheever is the man

I love how he writes. Never a predictable or bland moment. This is Pulitzer prize, winning stuff at its finest.

The Great John Cheever

he continues to enthrall me. I bit my lip till it bled listening to Bullet Park. you get to know these characters from a sideways direction, not the usual. But Cheever is not the usual writer. Can't say more without spoiling -- if you havent read it or listened to it, do. oh -- I very much liked the reader. he is exactly right for the book.