"The Swimmer": 05/29/25

"The Swimmer" by John Cheever (1964) is a short story that inspired a film by the same name in 1968. I came to the story via the film which I watched on Tubi.

Neddy Merrill and his family have been gone for some time. How long isn't stated and why isn't stated. Why they have appeared at the Westerhazys' home isn't stated either. All anyone can agree upon is that they've all drunk too much and are now around the pool on a pleasant summer day, drinking.

Neddy realizes that with swimming pools becoming such a popular home feature, it would be possible to "swim home." He tells his wife, Lucinda, that he will do just that, swim across the length of every pool between the Westerhazys' and his home, some eight miles west of there. In the story he counts sixteen pools, whereas in the film it's about half that with more time spent out of the water for character and story development.

Like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959), "The Swimmer" is a ghost story without a ghost. Or more precisely, Neddy, like Eleanor, is the ghost of this story.

The hidden ghost story aspect of this apparently bucolic comes into focus as the time needed to get home ends up being not hours more, but apparently days and weeks more. A man of his apparent health should be able to swim home in two or three hours. Four hours if he was taking his time.

But time doesn't flow that way on the Lucinda river. On Neddy way home he notices flowers out of season. There's a rain storm that comes unexpectedly. Night falls faster than it should for mid summer in Connecticut. After night falls he sees the wrong constellations.

All through the story (and film), people seem surprised to see Neddy. Sure, he's taking an unconventional route home but it's more that he's suddenly among them. The film adds in some backstory supposition about his daughters being up to no good and some murmurings about a dead son, implying a tragedy at the start of summer.

In the context of the story, Neddy seems distant from the life happening around him. He's there. He's observing. People even sometimes talk to him and offer him drinks, but it reminds me of the way Malcom Crowe interacts with other people in The Sixth Sense (2001). And sense Neddy seems to be visiting his old haunts, I would argue that he's the neighborhood dybbuk.

The final tragic clue is Neddy's home. He does eventually "swim home" but it's to a house that is empty and abandoned. The gate is locked and rusted. His wife and daughters aren't waiting for him. They have clearly moved out and moved on with their lives. They would do that if he were dead.

Neddy's swim home also happens to sit on the Road Narrative Spectrum. Neddy with his rich friends is a privileged traveler (00). His goal is home (66). He route there is an offroad one (66).

Five stars

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