Nothing in the book, in fact, invites anstrong judgment, iorFalconer’s tone doesnnot reflect the humane intelHgence ofnthe great EngHsh tradition, but rathernderives from a fundamental antagonismnto all judgments about good and evil.nCheever is not telling us that we mustnlove men in spite of their sins; his messagenis that we must not condemn themnbecause there is not real guilt. In then”post-Freudian” world oi Falconer, goodnand evil, sin and guilt, have disappeared.nOnly neuroses and “hang-ups” remain,nand the aim of life is simply to rid oneselfnof these as expeditiously as possible.nNowhere is the insidiousness of thisnmessage and the charm that cloaks itnmore apparent than in Cheever’s handlingnof Farragut’s relations with his brother.nFarragut believes that Eben has triednto kill him twice—once by enticing himnto swim in a shark-infested rip tide, andnonce by pushing him out a window—butnthe novel portrays these events ambiguously,nand Farragut’s suspicions maynresult from his own neuroses. In anyncase, he makes no effort to learn thentruth. On the contrary, he refrains fromneven thinking about the incidents, andntreats his brother as if nothing had happened.nIn spite of this, and in spite of thenfact that he has no other reason fornattacking his brother except for the angernthat he feels and what Eben stands for,nFarragut never evinces any guilt or regretnfor what he has done. Superficially, it isntrue, Farragut goes through a great dealnbefore he makes his escape from prison,nbut the sum of his sufferings nevernamounts to a convincing process of psych­nological regeneration. Farragut’s rebirthnis too easy; he never goes through a longnand painful confrontation with his ownnevil, but rather slips into a new self asnslickly as an accomplished writer likenCheever turns a phrase.nOnly the most callous or the most naivenof readers will be able to participate innthe mindless triumph sounded in thenbook’s last sentences, as Cheever describesnFarragut walking away from hisnsuccessful escape: “He held his head high,nhis back straight, and walked along nicely.nRejoice, he thought, rejoice.” How cannwe rejoice at the escape of a man whonhas killed his brother and never regrettednit.” How can we rejoice when one of ourntalented writers surrenders to “post-nFreudian” cant? •n”John Cheever strikes with an almost liturgical intensity in his extraordinary new novel . . .n’Falconer’ is a kind of contemplation in shorthand, a meditation on the abstraction Cheever hasnalways called ‘home’ but has never before located so explicitly in the life of the spirit. . .”n—Joan Didion, The New York Times Book Revieiv.n”This is, in its very essence, a novel about the Christian experience of life, death, hope . . .”n—Publishers Weekly.n”(John Cheever’s work has) validity, or what Tolstoi called, without apology, the artist’s correctnmoral relation to his material… Cheever has a gift for catching the emotional nuances in the speechnof people full of contradictions—like the killer guard who means no harm and loves his plants—likenall of us . . . It is familiar theory that people outside prisons are as bad as the people inside, butnCheever makes the argument stick . . ‘.’ — Saturday Revieiv.n”John Cheever has written a stunning meditation on all the forms of confinement and liberationnthat can be visited upon the human spirit . . . The theology here and throughout the novel isninteresting and sophisticated. Sin is interpreted as a radical failure of love . . .” —Commonwealn”And yet the experience of reading the book is one of elation. We are in the hands of a writer in fullnand secure possession of his powers, ready to tell us what he has learned during his lifetime aboutnmen and women, and men and men, and willing to grant us the freedom of our own imaginationsn. . . Falconer is a novel of Judgment that ends in miracle. The tenderness of Cheever’s final episodenis unmatched by anything he has written before . . .” —Newsweek.n”Certainly Ezekiel Farragut is a Cheever character . a disappointed romantic . . .”n— John Leonard, Harper’s Magazine.nnn9nChronicles of Culturen