The Gray Veil – Sunset, Tuesday, 3 March 2015

William Van Doren, THE GRAY VEIL. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on canvas, 24 x 30.

Last night I heard a podcast of the Irish author Anne Enright reading a story by John Cheever (“The Swimmer”), and in discussing the story she said something that really struck me. It might seem obvious, but there was something about the way she put it. She was responding to a question concerning Cheever’s dreamlike or surreal qualities. “It’s a terrible thing,” Enright said, “to ask a writer to limit their words to life itself. I mean, we live life. What you put on the page isn’t a representation of life. It’s words, and you can go anywhere, do anything, say anything you like.”