The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 9 January 2013
by John Updike
John Updike was one of the most notable of American authors in the twentieth century. His books are acute examinations of American life and the challenges of happiness in this culture. At the same time, Updike was also a prolific writer of short stories. Scores of his pieces appeared in The New Yorker throughout his tenure there and beyond. This book is a collection of 13 of his stories, as short as two pages to as long as a novella. There is an overarching theme here, one particular to Mr Updike, that of the middle class suburban man and his search for happiness in an indifferent world and in the face of aging and death. There is a lot of love in the stories, Updike's love of life and certainly also of women. There are brief affairs, and quite a bit of casual infidelity, as if Updike has long doubted one's possible happiness with one mate for an entire lifetime. Is this cynical or just a recognition of our animal drive to spread the love? Updike is a pretty courageous author. His depictions of the human animal are acute and often unflinching. He can make the reader cringe, but through bare recognition rather than revulsion. And he is astoundingly honest in his portrayal of the workings of a man's mind in the face of love, lust and opportunity. All of these stories are worth a look. None of them come to this collection merely as curiosities. The "sequel" of the subtitle takes up the second half of the book. It is a short novel or novella, a followup to Updike's award-winning Rabbit series of four novels (which also appeared as instalments in The New Yorker). It is ten years after the end of Rabbit at Rest, and the surviving characters have still some issues to work out. Harry Angstrom's son lives in the long fading shadow of his father and needs something to shake up his life, though his divorce hasn't seemed to do that. Into their lives walks Anabelle, now nearly 40 years old, the illegitimate daughter of Harry from one of his many peccadilloes so long ago. She has her own needs, but acts as a catalyst in the Angstrom family, sharpening their focus and suggesting that, even with aging and death visible in the distance, there is the possibility of a shade of some kind of happiness. There is some closure here, but, as in all of Updike's work, there is less of any kind of outright promise than a sense of being at sea in on a difficult planet. Brilliant stuff, really.
(Updike was awarded Pulitzer Prizes for two of the earlier Rabbit novels.)
Also by Updike:
[Rabbit, Run]
[Rabbit Redux]
[Rabbit is Rich]
[Rabbit at Rest]
[The Poorhouse Fair]
[The Centaur]
[S.]
[Toward the End of Time]
[The Witches of Eastwick]
[Of the Farm]
[Just Looking]
[Still Looking]
See also: [Updike, by Adam Begley]