"Late Gathering" is a work of short fiction by

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs ...

first published in ''Pagany'' magazine in its October–December issue, 1931. The story is included in '' Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever'' (1994) published by

Academy Chicago Publishers Academy Chicago Publishers is a trade book publisher founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1975 by Anita Miller and Jordan Miller who continue to select what is published. It was purchased by Chicago Review Press Chicago Review Press, ...

Plot

"Late Gathering" unfolds in a

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

summer hotel. The proprietor of the establishment, Amy, is anxious that her clientele will soon be departing when autumn arrives. She is troubled that many of her recent customers from the city bring their metropolitan habits to the country hotel—in particular, consuming alcohol freely—rather than finding comfort in the restful surroundings without imbibing. One of the residents is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

woman, who declares upon the beauty of the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

countryside, though her knowledge of the region is likely based on color images of milk chocolate commercials. Her assertion that her son will soon arrive from a West Coast university is met with skepticism by the other residents. Two youthful brothers, Fred and Richard, spend the late summer days lounging outdoors far from the hotel. The other denizens of the hotel appear preoccupied with their own personal concerns at the gathering. A

gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

plays perpetually in the parlor.

Critical assessment

"Late Gathering" marks a falling off from Cheever's early success with his first published work " Expelled" in 1930. Biographer Scott Donaldson notes that "...there is not much by way of characterization and no real drama. 'Late Gathering' risks making no statement whatever." According to critic John E. O'Hara, "Late Gathering" is "astonishing in tsformlessness" and falls far short of Cheever's first published work "Expelled". In a monologue delivered by a Russian woman describing the beauty of the Swiss countryside, O'Hara discerns Cheever's "preoccupation with rhetorical flourish at the expense of credibility." The character declares: Apparently, the woman has gleaned her knowledge of Switzerland from colorful

milk chocolate Milk chocolate is a form of solid chocolate containing Chocolate liquor, cocoa, sugar and milk. It is the most consumed types of chocolate, type of chocolate, and is used in a wide diversity of chocolate bar, bars, tablets and other confectione ...

advertisements.Donaldson, 1988 p. 47 O'Hara offers this excerpt from Cheever's preface to his 1978 collection ''

The Stories of John Cheever ''The Stories of John Cheever'' is a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever. It contains some of his most famous stories, including " The Enormous Radio", "Goodbye, My Brother", "The Country Husband", " The Five-Forty-Eight" ...

'' concerning his early work: Critic George W. Hunt points out that Cheever's earliest fiction, among these "Late Gathering", are largely "woman-centered" in that the "intensely masculine perspective" characteristic of his later fiction is absent. Hunt writes:

Footnotes

Sources

*Cheever, John. 1994. ''The Uncollected Stories of John Cheever''. Edited by Franklin H. Dennis. Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago. *Cheever, John. 2009. ''John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writing''.

The Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ...

. *Donaldson, Scott. 1988. ''John Cheever: A Biography''.

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, New York. *Meanor, Patrick. 1995. ''John Cheever Revisited.''

Twayne Publishers Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research a ...

, New York. *O'Hara, James E. 1989. ''John Cheever: A Study of the Short Fiction.''

, Boston. Twayne Studies in Short Fiction no. 9. *Hunt, George W. 1993. Introduction to ''Thirteen Uncollected Works by John Cheever''. Chicago Academy Publishers. {{Authority control 1931 short stories American short stories Short stories by John Cheever Short stories set in New Hampshire Works originally published in American magazines Works originally published in literary magazines