The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 5 March 1998
by John Updike
In this short novel, Updike tells the story of a family's strained visit to the ancestral farm in Pennsylvania. The book has an autobiographical feel translated through Updike's colorful, dense, and sometimes beautiful prose. A divorced man returns to his mother's farm with his new wife and stepson. Throughout, there are memories of his childhood, his dead father, and the suggestion that his mother was largely responsible for the end of his first marriage. The story is alternately sad and compelling. The author manages to project the beauty of the farm, the dark personality of the mother, and the confused worry of the new wife. It is a surprising little book. Nicholson Baker has cited this as one of his favorite Updike novels.
Also by Updike:
[Just Looking]
[Still Looking]
[The Centaur]
[S.]
[The Poorhouse Fair]
[Toward the End of Time]
[Rabbit, Run]
[Rabbit Redux]
[Rabbit is Rich]
[Rabbit at Rest]
[Licks of Love]
[The Witches of Eastwick]
See also: [Updike, by Adam Begley]