Falconer is the first thing I ever read by John Cheever, which is funny, since I think it is his least Cheevery novel. It may also be his strongest, though I haven’t read them all and my memories of The Wapshot Chronicles and Bullet Park are hazy.
Cheever is first and foremost a short story writer, and you can see that in Falconer, given its minimal plot and the episodic, word sketch nature of its scenes. The story is in third person, but he sneaks an “I” in there early on that suggest to me that the main character, ex-professor and drug addict Ezekiel Farragut, is actually the narrator, and is using third person as a device. Certainly the novel clings tightly to his point of view, and there are moments in the prose that suggest a bias in his favour.
The book serves as a chronicle of prison life, with petty indignities, rambling conversations between inmates, and Farragut’s reflections making up the bulk of the action. Notably, the main action of a the book, a prison riot where the inmates take hostages and demand greater rights, occurs at a different prison, and Farragut (and by extension, the readers) only learns tiny snippets trawled from contraband radios and gossip.
Cheever’s prose is on point, rich and evocative, and he does a great job capturing different characters’ voices. The ending my be a little implausible, but I thought it was a nice alternative to the more realistic stasis. I enjoyed rereading this, and it’s got me back in a Cheever mood. I’ll probably pick up some more soon.