The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Cheever
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The late 1950's
- Setting: A New York City suburb
- Principal Characters: Charlie Pastern, Mrs. Pastern, Mrs. Flannagan
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Prisons, Yards or backyards, Adultery, Charities, Impostors or imposture, Bomb shelters
- Locales: New York, NY
The Story
Charlie Pastern lives in a suburb of New York City and spends much of his time at the country club playing golf. He earns the nickname “brigadier” by carrying on in the locker room about America's enemies, insisting that the only way to deal with them is to drop nuclear bombs on them. Because he spends so little time at home, his wife is the “golf widow” in the title of the story. The marked difference in their personalities is initially dramatized by their attitudes toward the bomb shelter that Charlie Pastern has had constructed under their yard. Charlie is...
[The entire page is 1565 words long]
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