Selling Ben Cheever - Ben Cheever

No one wanted to publish Ben Cheever's third novel. With America in the throes of downsizing fever, Ben - former editor at READER'S DIGEST, husband of a NEW YORK TIMES book critic, son of Pulitzer-prize-winning author - found himself out of a job. Redundant. Unemployed. And with limited prospects. Mustering his courage, he skimmed the want-ads, made some phone calls, went to interviews, and before he knew it he had been a security guard, a computer salesman, and even a volunteer Santa Claus. Rejected by Brooks Brothers, bored in a bookshop, a good cop then a bad cop before settling down as a sandwich maker, Cheever eventually attains professional Nirvana as a car salesman. With a keen eye for the ridiculous (especially in himself) he brilliantly chronicles life on the other side of the counter.

Benjamin Cheever is the author of three novels, THE PLAGIARIST, THE PARTISAN (Editor's Choice of the NEW YORK TIMES' Best Books of 1994) and FAMOUS AFTER DEATH. He has also edited the letters of his father, John Cheever. A former editor at READER'S DIGEST, Cheever has written for THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NATION, and The NEW YORKER and has taught at Bennington College and The New School for Social Research. He lives in Pleasantville, New York.