Letting the Days Go by:
John Cheever’s warnings against time travel
“And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack,
and you may find yourself in another part of the world,
and you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile,
and you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife,
and you may ask yourself, ‘well, how did I get here?’”
-Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”
“What am I doing with my life? How did it all come to this? I’m how old now?” These are questions that haunt many people, but the most common times for this line of questioning are old age and mid-life. Mid-life was right where John Cheever was when he wrote “The Swimmer.” In the story the readers watch as Neddy Merrill swims through time, oblivious to its passing. He travels in a time machine made of denial, fueled by alcohol and petty pursuits. Cheever has made this trip. In his early forties, John Cheever was a severe alcoholic, he was having money troubles, and his career had not blossomed as he had hoped. All this combined with a failing marriage and you have the recipe for a mid-life crisis. This story was Cheever’s suicide note, which he would commit 30 short years later by giving himself cancer.
