"The Enormous Radio"
In “The Enormous Radio” a married couple is able to listen in on private conversations of other people sharing their apartment building. The story is partially a commentary on voyeurism with the unstated understanding that voyeurism is a fetish which brings pleasure from the act of anonymous observing others and secretly peering into their lives. The irony here is that the more the couple—primarily Mrs. Westcott—learn about the other residents through active voyeurism, the more unhappy they become as the pleasurable component is consistently reduced.
"The Swimmer"
A much more cosmic irony is at work in “The Swimmer.” Cheever sets up his narrative of Neddy swimming his way back home through a series of suburban built-in pools as a kind of mythic journey paralleling that of The Odyssey. The irony is that despite Neddy’s inflated narcissistic view of his status among his fellow suburbanites, by definition a suburb lacks any mythic dimension. To be the emperor of suburbia is to be next to nothing.
"The Five-Forty-Eight"
Miss Dent has recently been released from a mental institution after suffering a nervous breakdown due to sexual encounter with her boss, Mr. Blake, some time before. As a result, she stalks him from his office to the commuter train back to the suburbs and then forces him off at gunpoint in an effort to seek revenge. Much is made of Miss Dent’s mental state and emotional instability, but the ironic thing is that it Mr. Blake, the successful, womanizing exploiter who is revealed to be the one truly suffering from a severe mental problem.
The Angel of the Bridge
The narrator’s mother and brother both experience different forms of a phobia about heights. The narrator’s response to these fears is cruel sense of scorn. The story proceeds to turn on the irony of the narrator himself suddenly developing yet a third different incarnation of this fear of high places.
"The Housebreaker of Shady Hill"
This is one of the rare stories featuring a first person narrator and part of the reason Cheever makes that choice is voice and tone. The actual narrative of this story is pretty grim stuff. It is economic failure, despair and the inevitable decision by some reaching the lowest point in their lives that the only way out is to turn to crime. Told by an objective third person narrator, it would likely be a fairly depressing story; one closer to realism at any rate. But by having Johnny Hake tell his own story of failure, crime and redemption, Cheever transforms the sad tale into a comedy that arrives by virtue of the intensely ironic and self-aware narration of his protagonist.
