Showing results by author "John Updike" in All Categories

The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through this collection of short stories: Parents lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Love pangs, a favorite subject of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets, and deaths of distant friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.

John Updike's 21st novel, a bildungsroman, follows its hero, Owen Mackenzie, from his birth in the semi-rural Pennsylvania town of Willow to his retirement in the rather geriatric community of Haskells Crossing, Massachusetts. In between these two settlements comes Middle Falls, Connecticut, where Owen, an early computer programmer, founds with a partner, Ed Mervine, the successful firm of E-O Data, which is housed in an old gun factory on the Chunkaunkabaug River.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity.

Gertrude and Claudius are the "villains" of Hamlet: he the killer of Hamlet’s father and usurper of the Danish throne; she his lusty consort, who marries Claudius before her late husband’s body is cold. But in this imaginative "prequel" to the play, John Updike makes a case for the royal couple that Shakespeare only hinted at. Gertrude and Claudius are seen afresh against a background of fond intentions and family dysfunction, on a stage darkened by the ominous shadow of a sullen, erratic, disaffected prince.

The young John Updike’s portrayal of a haughty seminary student working as a lifeguard is witty and poetic, as the naïve hero surveys the beachgoers in his care, and contemplates a future of saving souls as well as bodies.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In this sixth story from The Maples Stories, Richard and Joan attend a party, after which an intoxicated Richard gets behind the wheel. With his wife in the backseat and Eleanor, a woman to whom Richard is undeniably attracted, in the passenger seat, he sets off into the snowy night.

A selection from the John Updike audio collection. These extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful.

A selection from the John Updike audio collection. These extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful.

A selection from the John Updike audio collection.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. The fifth story in this collection, "Marching through Boston," finds Richard and Joan Maple still holding on to the tattered threads of their marriage. As Joan is caught up in the civil rights movement, an unwell Richard joins her at a march in Boston.

Most kids write stories. Only a few of them grow up to be successful authors. But before there was Carrie, there was Jhonathan and the Witchs. And before there was Rabbit Angstrom, Toyota Dealer, there was Manuel Cirarro, famous detective. Could we have seen the seeds of success in Stephen King's and John Updike's juvenilia? A funny and surprisingly informative gathering of childhood creations by today's most celebrated writers.

Nelson Algren reading from The Man With the Golden Arm, James Jones reading from The Thin Red Line, John Updike reading “Lifeguard” from Pigeon Feathers and Other, Bernard Malamud reading from “The Mourners” from The Magic Barrre.

As Richard and Joan Maple's story continues in this fourth story in the collection, their marriage is falling apart. Though both intensely desire separation, they continue to hold on to their broken relationship. So rather than get away from each other, they go away with each other - to Rome.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. This third story in the collection finds Richard and Joan Maple in their ninth year of marriage. A brilliant metaphor full of irony and eloquent prose, "Giving Blood" reveals to listeners a hint of the tension and verbal lacerations that are slowly but surely causing the destruction of a marriage.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In this twelfth story, "Sublimating," Richard buys a cabbage, Joan enjoys the car wash, and the two of them give up on sex.

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming aluminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. "Divorcing: A Fragment", the sixteenth story in the Maples saga, offers a glimpse into the heartbreaking complexity of a relationship's collapse, no matter how flawed.

"Grandparenting," the final installation of The Maples Stories, concludes with Joan and Richard transitioning into new roles as grandparents for the first time, navigating the strange world of a split yet unified family years after their divorce.