Book description
A beautiful, moving collection of short stories, in many of which
Updike revisits the haunts of his childhood from the vantage point of
old age. In 'Fiftieth' old friends reconnect at a class reunion, and
one of them is left wondering, 'What does it mean: the enormity of
having been children and now being old, living next to death.' In the
story 'The Full Glass' the protagonist describes somewhat ruefully the
rituals of old age. Before going to bed, he raises his nightly water
glass 'drinking a toast to the visible world, his impending
disappearance from it be damned.' In 'Varieties of Religious
Experiences' a grandfather, visiting his daughter in Brooklyn Heights,
watches the tower of the World Trade Centre fall, and his view of a
God is forever altered.
Again and again in these memorable stories, Updike strikes to the
heart, giving words to what is so often left unsaid. He is at once
witty, devastatingly observant, touching - and, of course, a
consummate storyteller. This is a collection that will be admired and cherished.
John Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and died
in January 2009. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a
year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.
From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of the New Yorker and
after 1957 lived in Massachusetts until his death. His novels have won
the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award,
the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the
Howells Medal.
