Some words by their very nature define not our world but an ideal one, one in which we can believe but not live. It was always John Cheever's achievement to see that the middle class pretends that these words define reality, and then acts according to that faith, so that keeping up appearances is not only a desperate task but a noble stance….

In an imagined world where moral truths fly in the face of facts, Cheever's stories [collected in The Stories of John Cheever] set up extreme tensions between what should be believed and what must be seen. (p. 93)

Decorum is a concept not often defended or celebrated these days, and the strain of keeping it up is a frequent theme of Cheever's more recent stories…. Vulgarity does threaten the myths by which Cheever's people live, and their perplexity is genuine enough, but Cheever's decorum begins to...