John Cheever, "The Swimmer"

A man starts swimming across his neighbor's swimming pools.

This is one my all-time favorite stories. It's awesome on so many levels. Cheever is that guy who writes middle to upper class white person fiction and that can be one-note. But this story is fascinating from concept to the heartbreaking end. The idea of swimming across the neighborhood via their pools is fascinating to me. We read this in one of my college lit classes and I was blown away by it. Reread solidifies it as a classic in my mind. Very highly recommended.

Please read it here.