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48th out of 74 books
—
8 voters
Problems: And Other Stories
by
John Updike
In this midcareer collection of twenty-three short stories, John Updike tackles such problems as separation, divorce, and remarriage, parents and children, guns and prostitution, leprosy, swooning, suffocation, and guilt. His self-seeking heroes tend to be forty; his heroines are asleep, seductive, longing, or reproachful. None of these characters is innocent, and all are...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
December 12th 1985
by Fawcett
(first published 1979)
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Book #24 for 2012: Truth be told, I just randomly picked up this book from a shelf in the library just because I needed a "U" for my A-Z Challenge.
Problems is a collection of short stories. This is my first Updike. Although I still have no strong opinion about this book as a whole, I did like some of his stories. Please refer to my favorite lines.
Favorite lines:
The subway, rattling, plunges back underground. Or, it may be, as some extreme saints have implied, that beneath the majesty of the I...more
Problems is a collection of short stories. This is my first Updike. Although I still have no strong opinion about this book as a whole, I did like some of his stories. Please refer to my favorite lines.
Favorite lines:
The subway, rattling, plunges back underground. Or, it may be, as some extreme saints have implied, that beneath the majesty of the I...more
A decent collection - I think it's actually a good example of writing style, but I didn't like most of the plots. If you pick up this book I recommend "Minutes to the Last Meeting", "The Fairy Godfathers", and "Separating"...there's two or three others that are pretty good, but these are the best...in my "humble" opinion
One of Updike's best short story collections. Covers the period of his transition into a new marriage, children still at home, though some leaving; dabbling with other popular short story forms. His flowery style is restrained appropriately by the form itself.
I'm still trying to decide what I think of this collection as a whole. It was my first exposure to Updike so I'm interested in reading some of his novels next. Brilliant, amazing writer, no doubt about that; and the title story of this collection is pure genius. (But then, I'm a mathematician turned fiction writer, so it's hard for me to resist a short story told in a sequence of math problems...)
I picked this up because at a lecture by John Updike he said he liked his short stories better than his novels. Apparently we don't have the same taste. :(
Three stars out of the possible five is about right for me.
I liked more than half of the 23 stories a lot.
I liked more than half of the 23 stories a lot.
A pretty terrific collection. Highlights: "The Gun Shop;" "Nevada;" "How To Love America and Leave It At The Same Time;" "Separating;" "Here Come The Maples;" "The Egg Race; "Atlantises."
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A Good Read.
I have to say that I hate JU poems but his short stories are something else. Each word just sparkles in this collection. It starts slow but with the one entitled "Transaction" I was hooked.
Apr 13, 2012
Inquire
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A good set of stories.
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John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania) 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 hi...more
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