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.
Praise for ‘My Father’s Tears & Other Stories’
‘Updike remains a literary phenomenon . . .
no contemporary prose writer handles language as beautifully’
Irish Times
‘Updike is the master’
Sunday Telegraph
‘The earth becomes heavenly when Updike writes about it’
Observer
