Cheevey

Rating:
Summary: "Cheevey" was a sad book, and somewhat depressing.
Review: "Cheevey took me a while to get into. I didn't exactly understand everything that was going on. Cheevey and his whole family are messed up. Cheevey is at his 20th birthday, and his whole family is falling apart. His parents are divorcing, his brother's an alcoholic, and his sister is obsessed with the subject of her thesis. Cheevey is the one who is trying to hold his family together, and it isn't working. I thought this book was sad, and I couldn't read it for a long time because I got depressed. "Cheevey" is definitely not light reading.

Rating:
Summary: A deeply moving coming of age story.
Review: "There are families and anti-families. . . . Families are dense and produce gravity,Anti-families are hollow and therefore without gravity, and mine is exploding outward intothe universe."

This statement is central to Gerald DiPego's Cheevey, a novel that poignantly portrays the miscommunication and tension among members of a quintessential American family, a topic that is currently receiving a great deal of attention in this election year. DiPego has not, however, filled this book with 1950ish scenes of a happy family being broken apart by modern American tensions, but instead focuses on a much more subtle force, the inability of most family members to properly express their love, or any emotions for that matter, for each other.

The novel follows the experiences of Claude Cheever--Cheevey--just prior to and following his 20th birthday. The reader watches Cheevey, a remarkably caring and empathetic character who, as the youngest of three children, deals with the tensions of young-adulthood while attempting to hold his family together. As his sister says, he tries "to be the hand" that will connect the five separate fingers of the family. The family, however, seems intent on breaking apart: his frugal father retreats into a television set while his mother goes "to France," the term for her study where she dreams and plans for her eventual escape to the actual country; Phil, the angry eldest son, drinks heavily, picks fights, and rarely speaks to either parent, forcing Cheevey to serve as his messenger; and Mari, the most caring and communicative of the family, attempts to balance the demands of her doctoral dissertation, the motherhood she feels emotionally unsuited for, and her miscommunicative, troubled marriage. As Cheevy nears adulthood, the emotions his parents have been "tunneling" since his birth finally begin to emerge and reshape into bitter, seething anger and resentment. Deeply pained, Cheevy seeks for a method to resolve the hatred between his parents, whose stares clash across the dinner table like "crossed swords."

In Cheevey's exploration of relationships, love, and communication, the reader becomes deeply involved, hoping that Cheevy will find a way to hold his family together, or at least be able to remain intact himself; whole, against situations that appear bent on emotionally fragmenting him as completely as the novel's other characters.

As powerfully as Cheevey is portrayed, however, the most sympathetic character in the novel is his sister, Mari. She struggles against her own sense of fragmentation caused, in part, by memories of her parents's earlier battles, before their "tunneling," and against her current marriage to a man who constantly shouts at her to "grow up." Despite her fragmentation, Mari's wit and insight make up much of the novels's force. She always utters the right phrase to humorously and pointedly describe a situation, but remains unable to fully find a resolution. Mari's ability to understand but not to resolve the family tensions builds toward the novel's devastating tragedy, the outcome of which forces the others out of their emotional isolation and shows them the importance of life.

Also, a central metaphor of the novel emerges in the guise of Mari's academic research. She is writing a dissertation on an obscure novelist, Coretti, with the hopes of explaining his work, making him understandable, an effort that will hopefully bring him out of a self-imposed exile. She believes that a message is lies within the work, possibly encoded, and studies code-breaking manuals in her research. While her attempt fails, Mari's insight nevertheless allows the reader to see that this type of coding exists in the characters's own communication. Cheevey's father, for instance, in a rare attempt to express love, explains that he never fixed his car radio, asking if anyone understands that. This explanation baffles Cheevey, who tries "to understand a man who loves you by not fixing his radio." This type of attempt to express love in obscure ways, fruitlessly hoping others will somehow see the message, be able to crack the code without ever expressing it in words, fills the book. Love is present, but unspoken, encoded, and difficult to find, and the inability to state it becomes a void that expands throughout the novel, pushing the family apart. But, it is finally Mari (and I am attempting here not to give anything away) who begins to bring the family together when she, too, takes heart-breaking action and forces the family to see the result of their emotional "tunneling."

The novel's only weakness is in the opening Prologue, where the image of a shattered mirror becomes a metaphor for the explosive fragmentation of the family. "But the fall and crash of the Cheever family," Cheevey says, "unleashed more than glass and dust. There were truths in the rubble, some shameful and some exalting, and all of them still too sharp and clear to be called memory and to be removed from sight. We are the pieces, and we cannot be swept away." Fortunately, DiPego, who is primarily a screenwriter, quickly shifts from the somewhat sophomoric tone of this last line to a more direct, highly visual first- person narrative filled with powerful, witty dialogue, and the book becomes much more forceful and engaging. The dialogue, and many of the characters's inability to use it, is what makes this novel so effective. In it, the reader can see the complexity of each of the characters, comes to care for them, is lifted with their humor, with Cheevey and Mari's insight into and embrace of life, and is emotionally, and painfully, wrenched when such an embrace doesn't seem to be enough.

Rating:
Summary: "Cheevey" was a sad book, and somewhat depressing.
Review: "Cheevey took me a while to get into. I didn't exactly understand everything that was going on. Cheevey and his whole family are messed up. Cheevey is at his 20th birthday, and his whole family is falling apart. His parents are divorcing, his brother's an alcoholic, and his sister is obsessed with the subject of her thesis. Cheevey is the one who is trying to hold his family together, and it isn't working. I thought this book was sad, and I couldn't read it for a long time because I got depressed. "Cheevey" is definitely not light reading.

Rating:
Summary: A deeply moving coming of age story.
Review: "There are families and anti-families. . . . Families are dense and produce gravity, Anti-families are hollow and therefore without gravity, and mine is exploding outward into the universe."

This statement is central to Gerald DiPego's Cheevey, a novel that poignantly portrays the miscommunication and tension among members of a quintessential American family, a topic that is currently receiving a great deal of attention in this election year. DiPego has not, however, filled this book with 1950ish scenes of a happy family being broken apart by modern American tensions, but instead focuses on a much more subtle force, the inability of most family members to properly express their love, or any emotions for that matter, for each other.

The novel follows the experiences of Claude Cheever--Cheevey--just prior to and following his 20th birthday. The reader watches Cheevey, a remarkably caring and empathetic character who, as the youngest of three children, deals with the tensions of young-adulthood while attempting to hold his family together. As his sister says, he tries "to be the hand" that will connect the five separate fingers of the family. The family, however, seems intent on breaking apart: his frugal father retreats into a television set while his mother goes "to France," the term for her study where she dreams and plans for her eventual escape to the actual country; Phil, the angry eldest son, drinks heavily, picks fights, and rarely speaks to either parent, forcing Cheevey to serve as his messenger; and Mari, the most caring and communicative of the family, attempts to balance the demands of her doctoral dissertation, the motherhood she feels emotionally unsuited for, and her miscommunicative, troubled marriage. As Cheevy nears adulthood, the emotions his parents have been "tunneling" since his birth finally begin to emerge and reshape into bitter, seething anger and resentment. Deeply pained, Cheevy seeks for a method to resolve the hatred between his parents, whose stares clash across the dinner table like "crossed swords."

In Cheevey's exploration of relationships, love, and communication, the reader becomes deeply involved, hoping that Cheevy will find a way to hold his family together, or at least be able to remain intact himself; whole, against situations that appear bent on emotionally fragmenting him as completely as the novel's other characters.

As powerfully as Cheevey is portrayed, however, the most sympathetic character in the novel is his sister, Mari. She struggles against her own sense of fragmentation caused, in part, by memories of her parents's earlier battles, before their "tunneling," and against her current marriage to a man who constantly shouts at her to "grow up." Despite her fragmentation, Mari's wit and insight make up much of the novels's force. She always utters the right phrase to humorously and pointedly describe a situation, but remains unable to fully find a resolution. Mari's ability to understand but not to resolve the family tensions builds toward the novel's devastating tragedy, the outcome of which forces the others out of their emotional isolation and shows them the importance of life.

Also, a central metaphor of the novel emerges in the guise of Mari's academic research. She is writing a dissertation on an obscure novelist, Coretti, with the hopes of explaining his work, making him understandable, an effort that will hopefully bring him out of a self-imposed exile. She believes that a message is lies within the work, possibly encoded, and studies code-breaking manuals in her research. While her attempt fails, Mari's insight nevertheless allows the reader to see that this type of coding exists in the characters's own communication. Cheevey's father, for instance, in a rare attempt to express love, explains that he never fixed his car radio, asking if anyone understands that. This explanation baffles Cheevey, who tries "to understand a man who loves you by not fixing his radio." This type of attempt to express love in obscure ways, fruitlessly hoping others will somehow see the message, be able to crack the code without ever expressing it in words, fills the book. Love is present, but unspoken, encoded, and difficult to find, and the inability to state it becomes a void that expands throughout the novel, pushing the family apart. But, it is finally Mari (and I am attempting here not to give anything away) who begins to bring the family together when she, too, takes heart-breaking action and forces the family to see the result of their emotional "tunneling."

The novel's only weakness is in the opening Prologue, where the image of a shattered mirror becomes a metaphor for the explosive fragmentation of the family. "But the fall and crash of the Cheever family," Cheevey says, "unleashed more than glass and dust. There were truths in the rubble, some shameful and some exalting, and all of them still too sharp and clear to be called memory and to be removed from sight. We are the pieces, and we cannot be swept away." Fortunately, DiPego, who is primarily a screenwriter, quickly shifts from the somewhat sophomoric tone of this last line to a more direct, highly visual first- person narrative filled with powerful, witty dialogue, and the book becomes much more forceful and engaging. The dialogue, and many of the characters's inability to use it, is what makes this novel so effective. In it, the reader can see the complexity of each of the characters, comes to care for them, is lifted with their humor, with Cheevey and Mari's insight into and embrace of life, and is emotionally, and painfully, wrenched when such an embrace doesn't seem to be enough.

Rating:
Summary: coming of age in southern california
Review: This is a great book, a must read. Cheevey is dealing with his world falling apart as he nears his 20th birhtday. He's a good kid trying to be grown, while at the same time trying to keep all the people in his life (family and friends) functioning. While he doesn't quite make it, it's a fun read and a moving book.

Rating:
Summary: coming of age in southern california
Review: This is a great book, a must read. Cheevey is dealing with his world falling apart as he nears his 20th birhtday. He's a good kid trying to be grown, while at the same time trying to keep all the people in his life (family and friends) functioning. While he doesn't quite make it, it's a fun read and a moving book.