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Where is Eastchester?

Original Post - 24 Jun 2020 - Michael H. Scott

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I often mention Eastchester in posts, referring to a conversation with “a colleague in Eastchester” or showing an example from “a class I teach in Eastchester”. But where is Eastchester? You won’t find it on any map of the US Pacific Northwest.

Eastchester is the home of fictional Cascadia College in Bernard Malamud’s novel A New Life, which is loosely based on Malamud’s time in the 1950s as an English instructor at Oregon State College, now known as Oregon State University, in Corvallis.

The main character, Sy Levin, moves from New York to Eastchester to teach composition at Cascadia. After getting into a few sticky situations, Sy leaves Eastchester after less than a year, embarking on another, more uncertain, new life.

This is not a book review, I just wanted to explain the Eastchester reference. But, if you like the professor literature genre, I highly recommend A New Life.

You may have heard of Malamud’s other work, including The Natural, which was made into a motion picture in 1984 starring Robert Redford and Glenn Close.