Cheever: A Life (by Blake Bailey)

CHEEVER: A LIFE by Blake Bailey (unabridged) is presented by Blackstone Audio and comes with what is perhaps the best audiobook app available (see FEATURES, below).

HONORS: 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, AudioFile Earphones Award, one of AudioFiles Best Biography Audiobooks of 2009, iTunes Best Nonfiction Audiobook of 2009, New York Times Notable Book of 2009, Amazon.com Top 100 Editors Pick and a Best Book of 2009, Booklist Top of the List Pick and Editor’s Choice for Nonfiction for 2009, Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book

In this luminous biography, Blake Bailey shows us the conflicted soul of a writer of timeless fiction. Though Cheever’s groundbreaking work would earn him fame, it never wholly offset his anxieties and desperate loneliness.

Self-contained, this audiobook app is perfect for your commute, on a trip, or while relaxing. Based on a library-quality recording, this app was built especially for your iPhone and iPod Touch. No unreadable text, no endless scrolling on a tiny screen. The audio is of higher-than-normal quality, making for a great listening experience that will not tire your ears or grate on your nerves.

NOTICE: This app includes the exact same 5-star recording offered elsewhere at much higher prices. It was professionally recorded by Blackstone Audios gifted narrator Malcolm Hillgartner. You are not buying yet another amateur or volunteer narration. No clicks, background noises, throat clearing, mispronunciations, tinny voices or monotones will be found here.

“[Cheever’s] story here is told by a narrator of unusually subtle gifts. Bailey’s book is as lively (and squalid) as his subject but quite dense, an attribute Malcolm Hillgartner overcomes with wondrous pacing and inflection." (Audiofile)


•EXPERIENCE. About 28 hours of narration. Created as a Folium enhancedAudio™ edition, this book includes extra functions and features not found on lesser players.

•PLAYER CONTROLS. Includes listen (play), pause, multi-speed fast forward/reverse, jump ahead/back, chapter skip, volume control, one-touch chapter- and bookmark browser. There is also a “scrub” bar that finds any point inside the chapter with just a tap.

•SLEEP TIMER. Have you ever fallen asleep watching TV or listening to a book? If so, youll love this feature. Once set, the book will stop, place a bookmark, and allow you to jump back to where you probably began dozing.

•CLEAR & ELEGANT DESIGN. Simple, clean, intuitive, and smarter than average.

•CHAPTER TIMINGS. Always know how much time it will take to finish a chapter. Plus, the progress bar at the top of the screen shows how far into the book you’ve come.

•OFFLINE LISTENING. You are airplane-ready! Once downloaded, listen uninterrupted without threat from a lost network connection. Downloads are usually just 5-10 minutes, but depend upon your network speed.

•AUTO-BOOKMARKING. The player remembers where you stopped listening and returns to that exact spot when you open the book again.

•TELL-A-FRIEND. An easy way to recommend the book to your friends or Twitter feed.

•FEEDBACK. Share your ideas for books, functions, and features. We are very responsive to our listeners and appreciate all feedback and ideas.


RATING: 9+ for mature themes.

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Here is, for the first time, the full and unforgettable life of John Cheever (1912-1982), written with unprecedented access to essential sources. Cheever was a soul in conflict, a high-school dropout who published his first story at eighteen, a dire alcoholic who recovered to write the great novel Falconer, a secret bisexual who struggled with his longings and his fierce homophobia, whose groundbreaking work landed him on the covers of Time and Newsweek, a man who believed in the power of family love and sexual pleasure, a man whose desperate loneliness was never wholly offset by his faith in the joy of creation.