The Swimmer, by John Cheever

Richard Fink reads John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” a modern myth that surely stands as one of the greatest works of short fiction by an American writer. Fancying himself an explorer and “man with a destiny,” Ned Merrill decides to make the eight-mile journey to his Westchester home via an imaginary river — the swimming pools of his friends and neighbors. But the journey turns surreal as the day stretches out into the passages of Merrill’s life, bringing autumnal darkness, the fatigue of age, and the protagonist’s sense of his own emptiness and isolation.

Music: “Islands,” Philip Glass.

Directed by Fredric Dannen.

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