What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

It was a collection of short stories, all by the same author. They had a tongue in cheek but bitter look at the modern life of the time. I think it was 50s 0r 60s, maybe even 70s, not sure. I am pretty sure a lot of them were originally in The New Yorker. Some of them went a little surreal. all are pretty bleak.

There was one where a man suspects his wife is poisoning him with bug poison in his steaks and has a dream about writing love spelled LUVE everywhere in a marker. his daughter and her boyfriend are anarchic and have a human skeleton covered in butterflies.

another has something about a torn or badly fitting pair of trousers. another about a man keeping rabbits, his kids want them as pets, he wants to eat them. then neighbours poison them?

also one where a man thinks his wife is having an affair, she does a minor striptease at a party- gloves and stockings or something.

I wondering if this could be Thurber, James. He definitely had a sardonic, and at times pessimistic view of life. I'm not familiar with all of his works to know if any of these examples are in his collections.

I did a search for the word "LUVE" and came up with John Cheever. I found this quote:

“But I awoke at three, feeling terribly sad, and feeling rebelliously that I didn't want to study sadness, madness, melancholy, and despair. I wanted to study triumphs, the rediscoveries of love, all that I know in the world to be decent, radiant, and clear. Then the word "love", the impulse to love, welled up in me somewhere above my middle. Love seemed to flow from me in all directions, abundant as water--love for Cora, love for Flora, love for all my friends and neighbors, love for Penumbra. This tremendous flow of vitality could not be contained within its spelling, and I seemed to seize a laundry marker and write "luve" on the wall. I wrote "luve" on the staircase, "luve" on the pantry, "luve" on the oven, the washing machine, and the coffeepot, and when Cora came down in the morning (I would be nowhere around) everywhere she looked she would read "luve", "luve", "luve." Then I saw a green meadow and a sparkling stream. On the ridge there were thatched-roof cottages and a square church tower, so I knew it must be England. I climbed up from the meadow to the streets of the village, looking for the cottage where Cora and Flora would be waiting for me. There seemed to have been some mistake. No one knew their names. I asked at the post office, but the answer here was the same. Then it occurred to me that they would be at the manor house. How stupid I had been! I left the village and walked up a sloping lawn to a Georgian house, where a butler let me in. The squire was entertaining. There were twenty-five or thirty people in the hall, drinking sherry. I took a glass from a tray and looked through the gathering for Flora and my wife, but they were not there. Then I thanked my host and walked down the broad lawn, back to the meadow and the sparkling brook, where I lay on the grass and fell into a sweet sleep.”

Diana wrote: "I did a search for the word "LUVE" and came up with John Cheever. I found this quote:

“But I awoke at three, feeling terribly sad, and feeling rebelliously that I didn't want to study sadness, mad..."


Thank you Diana! This sounds like it! I can't believe it was that easy to find, I've been looking for years!

I'm not 100% sure which edition it was, but I'm adding the collected stories to the list.

I actually searched for "Luve in marker" and got it. I'm glad it's right, hope you enjoy the stories!

oh that's where I was going wrong. Lol. Funny how all the tiny specifics make a difference.

Laura wrote: "I'm not 100% sure which edition it was, but I'm adding the collected stories to the list. "

I added [s] to the end of the topic title. but I don't see the collected stories on our shelves. I'll add an edition. If you find the correct book, post here and we can change which book is shelved.

I searched a little and found out this story in included in The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever.

If this matches your book, we can shelve it.

Kate, it's not in The Wapshot Chronicle, which is a novel.

According to googlebooks it's in John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings.

Oops, I'm sorry for the wrong info. I relied on a page that summarized the story and cited the Wapshot Chronicle. Ahh, the dangers of relying too much on the internet!