The Wapshot Scandal by John Cheever

 

A marvelous sequel to The Wapshot Scandal, Dave Eggers bizarre foreword notwithstanding. (Eggers gives his mailing address for some reason.)

The distant mountains had been formed by fire and water but the houses in the valley looked so insubstantial that they seemed, in the dusk, to smell of shirt cardboards. (p. 34)

"Listen, chicken," Murphy said, "Where I grew up you either helped yourself or you ate dirt.” “But this doesn't happen to be where you grew up,” said Coverly. It was the wrong tack." (p.34)