Forty Stories

by John Updike

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Paperback

First published May 1, 1987

About the author

John Hoyer Updike was an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit Remembered). Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having published 22 novels and more than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since the 1950s. His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter-relationships.

He died of lung cancer at age 76.

Reviews

[Daniel Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The summer of 2021, a wave of heat hit me, sent sweat down my back and somehow made me thirsty for a book of good short stories. I remembered the story “The A&P” from long ago and thought I might try 39 more stories by John Updike. I would read them in the various locales of Nagasaki. The book itself was in my university library. Its pages were brown and yellowing. I was busy that semester, which is why I had trouble concentrating.

I’m sorry. I’m lying. Let me start over. I had started a new job at the university, and I was gripped with anxiety. Would I be good at my new job? Will the Coronavirus ever end? What would I do now that I was almost 40? Would I be able to finish my novel?

I always end up okay, but I’m never okay. That’s why I had trouble concentrating. Maybe my anxiety is inexplicable.

I had to read the first 5 stories twice to absorb them. Periodically, I would skip back to the “A&P”. That story I had read so long ago.

The other stories were charming and deep. If their content was inconsequential, it made the depth of the prose that much more beautiful. I read one of the stories in a park on a mountainside overlooking Omura Bay, Nagasaki. Omura Bay is a beautiful place and Omura Bay is dotted with small islands, fishing boats, and the twinkling of sunlight. I would contemplate the beauty of stories like “Alligators” and “Pigeon Feathers” while walking along the Togitsu coast. Idle fishing boats were on my mind, but my mind was also cluttered with many other worries.

I returned the book to the library. Only five stories finished. My reading went elsewhere. The summer grew hotter. I checked out the book again. I thought about that clerk at the A&P sick of authority and hoping for adventure. I took the book to the beach hoping to find girls in bikinis with sand on their butts and attitudes to match. I was growing older, but dreaming of being a short-story writer.

I can make it to forty. Maybe even forty-five. But only if I’m careful. I’m never careful.

And then on July 31st, miraculously I finished the book. The last story is “The Corner”. “The town is one of those that people pass through on the way to somewhere else, so its inhabitants have become expert in giving directions.” I don’t know where I’m going or if I can write another good short story. I’m not at the beach today. It is overcast. I still have the anxiety of three middle-aged men. No one is here to give me directions.

I keep on writing.

[Steven John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels a little dated now, which of course it is. One of longest stories in the book 'Pigeon Feathers' about a boys loss of religious faith and life with mis-matched parents I found heavy going and turgid in parts. On the other hand, one of the shortest stories in the book 'The Orphaned Swimming Pool' is one of the best stories about a failed marriage I can remember reading. A couple of the stories with line-drawings 'Under the Microscope' - about insects, and 'During the Jurassic' - a story about dinsaurs, I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

[David Mundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulous vignettes of American life from the 50s to the 70s. Most are engrossing to read, a few are so-so. Not much excitement but much fine observational detail. Covers a wide-range of characters and situations in quite ordinary US towns. A high standard of writing overall.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Olinger Stories:
*You'll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You
*The Alligators
Pigeon Feathers --2
Friends from Philadelphia
*Flight
*A Sense of Shelter
*The Happiest I've Been
*The Persistence of Desire
The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother's Thimble, and Fanning Island
*Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car

Out in the World:
*Ace in the Hole
*The Christian Roommates
Still Life
Dentistry and Doubt
A Madman
Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow?
Toward Evening
Sunday Teasing
*Incest
*A Gift from the City
The Stare
The Orphaned Swimming Pool
The Witnesses
The Day of the Dying Rabbit
The Family Meadow
At a Bar in Charlotte Amalie
*Under the Microscope
*During the Jurassic

Tarbox Tales:
*The Indian
*The Hillies
A & P --3
*Lifeguard
*The Deacon
*The Carol Sing
*The Music School
Leaves
Four Sides of One Story
I Will Not Let Thee Go, Except Thou Bless Me
The Corner
***
*Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth
*When Everyone Was Pregnant
*The Bulgarian Poetess
The Gun Shop --2
*The Doctor's Wife
*The Slump
*Dear Alexandros
*Man and Daughter in the Cold
*Should Wizard Hit Mommy?
*A Sandstone Farmhouse
*Playing with Dynamite
*Deaths of Distant Friends
*Still of Some Use
*Bech Noir
*The Brown Chest

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13117821