Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

The Treatment and The Cure by Peter Kocan

by
May 1984, no. 60

The Treatment and The Cure by Peter Kocan

First published as separate, Sirius, 1984. London: Sydney: Angus and Robinson 1980 and 1983, $7.95

The Treatment and The Cure by Peter Kocan

by
May 1984, no. 60

I would not lightly mention any writer of fiction in the same breath as John Cheever, who was one of the most remarkable and enjoyable storytellers of our times. I can’t better this short comment which says it all: ‘The Cheever corpus is magical – a mood, a vision, a tingle, all quite unexplainably achieved.’ That is from Newsweek and graces the front cover of The Stories of John Cheever (King Penguin).

I do mention Peter Kocan in the same breath, not to make comparisons with the incomparable, but because Kocan’s novels so strongly remind me of that Newsweek opinion: ‘a mood, a vision, a tingle, and all quite unexplainably achieved’.

How Peter Kocan achieves the stunning, but subtle impact of these two novels, now printed in one volume, I cannot explain. It is tempting to end this article here and now with: ‘Read them for yourself.’

Nancy Keesing reviews 'The Treatment' and 'The Cure' by Peter Kocan

The Treatment and The Cure

by Peter Kocan

First published as separate, Sirius, 1984. London: Sydney: Angus and Robinson 1980 and 1983, $7.95

From the New Issue

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.