Los Wapshot / The Wapshot Chronicle

Formado por La crónica de los Wapshot (National Book Award, 1958) y El escándalo de los Wapshot, este ómnibus recoge la historia de una prestigiosa familia venida a menos.Las raìces de los Wapshot se hunden en Saint Botolphs, un pueblo pesquero donde la única persona que conserva patrimonio es la excéntrica tìa Honora. Cheever nos presenta a Leander Wapshot, entrañable padre de familia; su respetable mujer, Sarah, y sus dos hijos, obligados a labrarse el futuro en la gran ciudad: Moses, un triunfador nato, y Coverly, un joven dubitativo ante su bisexualidad que bien podrìa ser un alter ego del autor.

Cálida e irónica, la mirada de Cheever despliega aquì su comprensión hacia nuestras debilidades y disecciona con lucidez el ocaso de los privilegios.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

When The Wapshot Chronicle was published in 1957, John Cheever was already recognized as a writer of superb short stories. But The Wapshot Chronicle, which won the 1958 National Book Award, established him as a major novelist.

Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly. Tragic and funny, ribald and splendidly picaresque, The Wapshot Chronicle is a family narrative in the tradition of Trollope, Dickens, and Henry James.