Tea, Crumpets and a spot of Tiffin anyone? Or a cup of coffee and a Burger?

What is Uniquely American (yuck...sorry, but hey I can put my own views on here...right? moving swiftly on) fiction? And why are Cheever’s stories described as such. Well, Cheever’s stories tend to narrate the lives of suburban dwellers, although, they normally narrate the dysfunctional side of them and thrive on the ‘nuclear’ family from behind closed doors. ‘The Enormous Radio’ proves  this with Irene Westcott. The gossip and paranoia that ensues from the ‘multipurpose radio’, is typical (I believe) of the suburban life, which is one side of the American storytelling - the ‘what is going on everywhere’ syndrome.  In the stories I have read, (the ones given to us to read... and some more soon) all these people seem to have money, but there is no mention of how they got it. However, they’re all living comfortably. An example of this is ‘Goodbye my Brother’, in which the characters can afford to have a house on the edge of a cliff, yet, the mother never worked and the dad died. The dad must have saved his money well! No mortgage or anything, I’m quite jealous. They’re happy to go to parties and not take their work home with them, unlike the British amongst us whom I see on trains with their laptops, tapping away. On the other hand, what makes a story uniquely British? From lectures in this module, I gathered that stories are usually either about the working class (chavs), or upper class (toffs), without a mention of the middle class (because they don’t exist...damn capitalism).  Also, there is always a ‘hang out’ such as a pub, or a kitchen, corridor, farm ect. As a Maltese native, I’m hugely blessed with an incredible history, and culture (although our history is of pain, misery and invasions; and our culture is of laziness and loudness, it’s a culture nevertheless). However, being raised in England, I’ve been blessed further, with the multiculturalism that comes with this nation. So as you can see, I have tones of cultures that I could identify with.  Why would I want to write about just one type of culture, when there is a world out there, and millions of traditions and societies to learn from?  I wouldn’t want to be tied down to just one!