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The Maples Stories
by
John Updike
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Collected together for the first time in hardcover, these eighteen classic stories from across John Updike’s career form a luminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity.
In 1956, Updike published a story, “Snowing in Greenwich Village,” about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginnin...more
Collected together for the first time in hardcover, these eighteen classic stories from across John Updike’s career form a luminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity.
In 1956, Updike published a story, “Snowing in Greenwich Village,” about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginnin...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
August 4th 2009
by Everyman's Library
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I didn't discover Updike until his death in 2009. I really enjoyed "Rabbit, Run" but found "Villages" pretty stale, and pretty much the same subtext as "Rabbit," there's a lot of adultery going on in suburbia. This edition is the first time "The Maples Stories" are gathered together (nicely done by the ever-fabulous, Everyman's Pocket Library.) These stories appeared in various magazines between 1956 and the mid-1970's. Also included is the last and unp...more
The Maples Stories by John Updike
Added 5/5/11.
Below is a link to info re a Google eBook copy which can be sampled on my computer:
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=6LlLN8...
SAMPLE: http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id...
Excerpt from the blurb:
==========================================================
"Seventeen Maples stories were collected in 1979 in a paperback edition titled Too Far to Go [1980], prompted by a television adaptation. Now those sto...more
Added 5/5/11.
Below is a link to info re a Google eBook copy which can be sampled on my computer:
http://books.google.com/ebooks?id=6LlLN8...
SAMPLE: http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id...
Excerpt from the blurb:
==========================================================
"Seventeen Maples stories were collected in 1979 in a paperback edition titled Too Far to Go [1980], prompted by a television adaptation. Now those sto...more
Updike seems to write best when he writes of sad, pensive things. The melancholy late stories are things of real majesty, and the overall conceit of the story-cycle is, itself, well-done; I especially appreciate the present-progressive (-ing) verbs as titles throughout, as this adds a touch of life to the stories. There is the problem with how genuinely unlikeable Dick and Joan Maple are, as self-absorbed, adulterous boors. But this is honest, I think. These are our upper-class fantasy selve...more
Somewhere along my way I had been recommended the John Updike short Story "Separating" which is part of this book. It is one of a series of short stories that Updike wrote between the 1950's and 1990's, the stories placed a bit earlier in history than that. It's interesting to me that an author could imagine and execute such a focused set of stories over a forty-year period. Just for that this deserves a read.
"A moving fictional reality" was how I've seen one reviewer put it ...more
"A moving fictional reality" was how I've seen one reviewer put it ...more
Inexplicably, I've been really drawn to stories of marital disintegration, preferably those that take place (or at least start) in the 50s. (REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is one of my favorite books ever, so I guess I'm trying to recreate the thrill of reading that for the first time. By the way, the movie is surprisingly tolerable.) Anyway, I loved THE MAPLES STORIES. Updike is (obvs!) lovely in short story form, full of the kind of detailed expression that us average folk internalize constantly but can't...more
Sad stories of the disintegration of a marriage collected together seem fragmentary when read as a whole. Updike is well-respected for his short stories, but these seem like sketches for a novel, perhaps Couples. I have always preferred his novels anyway.
The mystery at the core of these tales is Why? This is the question asked by the Maples' oldest son in response to the news that his parents were separating. They both went on to marry much worse people than each other, especially Jo...more
The mystery at the core of these tales is Why? This is the question asked by the Maples' oldest son in response to the news that his parents were separating. They both went on to marry much worse people than each other, especially Jo...more
This review is cobbled together with the jacket description:
In 1956, Updike published a story, “Snowing in Greenwich Village,” about a couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.
This is a wonderful collection. Updike does a beautif...more
In 1956, Updike published a story, “Snowing in Greenwich Village,” about a couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.
This is a wonderful collection. Updike does a beautif...more
Outside of a handful of anthologized stories and the Rabbit novels, I haven't read much Updike. This collection, written from 1956 to the mid 1990s, follows the life, marriage, and divorce of Richard and Joan Maple. Despite Updike's wonderful sentences, I didn't much care for the early stories. I just couldn't care about these two vacuous, upper middle class people and their rather self-inflicted "problems." These two characters lack any kind of charm or appeal, whereas Rabbit, as...more
This book was so wonderful. Almost too good. Sometimes I found my mind splitting on itself a little bit as I read, not out of boredom but as self-protection; he cuts too close!
I just happened to read this immediately after reading Olive Kitteridge and that was interesting. While I really, really liked that collection of related stories, this collection, in comparison, seemed to be written by a master. Strout's collection was a very good attempt by a very good writer, but Updik...more
I just happened to read this immediately after reading Olive Kitteridge and that was interesting. While I really, really liked that collection of related stories, this collection, in comparison, seemed to be written by a master. Strout's collection was a very good attempt by a very good writer, but Updik...more
I have come late in life to discover John Updike. I tried him years ago and decided I didn't like his books but recommendations from friends have led me to try again and I am very glad I did so. This book is a collection of linked stories written throughout the author's career tracing the marriage, divorce and remarriage to others of a couple living in Massachusetts. Beautifully crafted stories rich with imagary.
The first few stories, written early in Updike's career, are a bit too self-consciously "arty" for my taste, but the later ones flow much more smoothly. The whole genre of middle-class suburban angst exemplified by the Maples stories was basically invented by Updike (and John Cheever), but it's been done so many times by so many others that, from today's vantage point, it all seems a bit stale. Still, this is a quick read and Updike is always a convivial companion.
The stories detail one couple's journey from newlyweds to grandparents, from promises of everlasting love to infidelities, from the joy of family life into the devastation of divorce and the inevitable restructuring of the family. Updike captures emotions, gestures,and subtle undertones like no other, and the writing sings.
Sometimes I hate Updike when I'm reading him, but I realize, when I distance myself from the characters and plot, that I hate how TRUE he is. This was one of the most perfect collections I have ever read. The stories were not always nice, not always easy to read, but together they were perfection. Love, love, love!
The setting of the stories are visually exquisite. I liked the references to painters.
The changes in story format were interesting. The one told as a stream of consciousness worked well, in my opinion.
I only wished that musically the stories would be as interesting.
The changes in story format were interesting. The one told as a stream of consciousness worked well, in my opinion.
I only wished that musically the stories would be as interesting.
When you're reading a book while riding a bus and miss not one, not two, but three of your stops because you're too engrossed in the book, then you have to admit to yourself it's a pretty good book,even if you can't stand either one of the two main characters.
I'm a fan of Updike's work--I really think he's an interesting writer. However, if you are looking for an uplifting portrayal of marriage and relationships--this is anything but. Plus, he's a bit of a misogynist.
As much as I love John Updike (especially the Rabbit books and "Roger's Version"), these stories strike me a as a little thin. I think the novel was his true metier.
I love John Updike's writing, I just wish he would write about something other than unhappiness and infidelity.
Found it depressing. This is the first Updike I've read. Are they all depressing?
One of my favorites. Painful.
I don't usually read short stories, but I was so attracted by the wonderful Nicholson portrait on the cover. The book more than lived up to its cover. At the end I was not ready to let the Maples go.
Heartbreaking.
Giovanni
added it
I was ok....
I really don't know why anyone would bother writing about such unsympathetic characters. For years.
Mary Newcomb
added it
Dick and Joan Maple, as profiled by John Updike, have had an unusual marriage. This collection of short stories was interesting to follow.
Bee
is currently reading it
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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 kn...more
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