Bullet Park

Welcome to Bullet Park, a township in which even the most buttoned-down gentry sometimes manage to terrify themselves simply by looking in the mirror. In these exemplary environs John Cheever traces the fateful intersection of two men: Eliot Nailles, a nice fellow who loves his wife and son to blissful distraction, and Paul Hammer, a bastard named after a common household tool, who, after half a lifetime of drifting, settles down in Bullet Park with one objective-to murder Nailles's son. Here is the lyrical and mordantly funny hymn to the American suburb-and to all the dubious normalcy it represents-delivered with unparalleled artistry and assurance.