The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well, John Cheever

Somehow I made it through 40 years without having read John Cheever. We have an anthology of his short stories which I have been muscling through off and on over the past year. The Day the Pig...reeks of Cheever. Moody, reflective, depressing, funny and, like most of his stories, leaves you feeling a bit misplaced at the end. It takes place in and around a lake in upstate NY during the 1930 - 1950's and involves a family of certain means and some of the local folk. It is not a story about a pig, ostensibly. Rather, it is a circular story of the lives of the family members and how the summer evenings seem always to turn back to their anecdotal stories, often involving that day the pig fell into the well. They each have a bit in telling the story, just like they each have a bit as players in their own lives - only it is the same story over and over again. Just as their lives are the same thing over and over again. The stories are well worth the time. They are crafted with art and nuance. They are emotive and reflective. They enrich.