''The Wapshot Scandal'' is the second novel by American writer
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 in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...
. The book followed ''
The Wapshot Chronicle
''The Wapshot Chronicle'' is the debut novel by American author John Cheever about an eccentric family that lives in a Massachusetts fishing village. Published in 1957, it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1958,from the Awards 50-ye ...
'', and was awarded the 1965
William Dean Howells Medal
The William Dean Howells Medal is awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Established in 1925 and named for William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary cr ...
. The scandal of the title involves one of the Wapshot wives running off with a 19-year-old bagboy from the local
A&P and making a life with him in Italy.
The book is written in Cheever's signature style, and in part seeks to engage with issues of American civilization coping in a nuclear and automated age.
1964 American novels
Novels by John Cheever
Harper & Row books
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