The Early Stories: 1953-1975

John Updike enjoyed a long writing career. In his later years, he wrote about many mature concerns: marriage, children, fidelity and infidelity, archaeology, religion, the afterlife. But in The Early Stories, 1953-1975, he wrote many stories where the protagonist stands at the threshold of the big wide world. In iconic stories like Pigeon Feathers, Flight, A & P, and Lifeguard, we see a young boy undertaking this poignant journey from sweet ignorance to bitter knowledge, or from one illusion to another illusion.

This collection of early stories, though a bit long winded at points--traditional for Updike writing and understood and accepted by his fans--the stories are nonetheless entrancing and enrapturing. I devoured them like candy. They were the sweet and sumptuous words that only a master of the english language could wove together. Sixty Five stories in twenty two years is nothing to be scoffed at, and something to be admired. With his next novel coming out this year, with two pulitzers, two national book awards, two national book Critic Circle Awards, the only other writer that may deserve a Nobel Prize in Literature more than him is Philip Roth... but in my opinion, I think he has it over Roth.

This is a fantastic book! The stories will take you back in time. I had to read several of these stories in college literature. I fell in love with these stories. A&P was one of my favorites. It reminds me of a lot of the things I did growing up.

There are over a hundred stories in this collection, and they show Updike's development over a significant period. Many of these stories were written for and published by The New Yorker, and they show the bias in that direction. But if you are looking both for classic short story techniques as well as interesting tales, you can can't beat this group. Updike is justly famous for his outstanding use of language, and you can see his full range here. Some of the stories are frankly experimental/allegorical and others are Mark Twain-homespun. But all are interesting and reward careful reading (and if you are an aspiring writer, close study). Highly recommended.

Updike is elegance in prose incarnate. By that I don't mean superficial or pretentious. Not a whiff of either of those things. It's just that there's a kind of perfection of expression that Updike achieved in his short stories. I can't say I'm a fan of his novels, so if he hasn't grabbed you in that regard, and you love the short form, you have to look into him again. And there's no better book. Personal tip--> Combine Updike with Cheever and Paul Bowels, reading them alternately. These three together form an almighty trio of American short story writing.

This book is a favorite on my shelf right now. One is continually amazed that Updike can write in such a way that he is inside one's head. Stories brim with recognition--from childhood disappointments, to adolescent dating disasters, to adult ambiguity. One reads Updike with a real sense that he knows of what he writes from the inside out. This collection brings the hard core Updike fan the great gift of the Oelinger stories, long out of print, as well as the gem 'A&P'. A perfect book for a Sunday evening with a cup of tea.

Meh

I replaced all my tattered seventies paperbacks of treasured early Updike stories with this lovely volume, and I am so pleased to have it. Updike did a nice interview with Jeffrey Brown about the collection, when it came out, which you can find on YouTube. These early stories are not only lovely in their own right, but are acute and insightful descriptions of American life in the fifties, sixties and seventies.

Great book

If we want to take in the majesty of these short stories to give them due recognition we must understand Updike the social critic. He was an avid reader of henry james , Nathaniel hawthorne(the scarlet letter)and herman Melville(moby dick, billy budd) as well as being immersed in the religiosity of g.k.chesterton, hilaire belloc and Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and karl barth. Although he was an inveterate protestant he brings a tinge of criticism to the short story and to society to those who want to leave religion out of modern life. The short stories serve to complement these writers who updike grew up on and can be glimpsed in the early story pigeon feathers where the protagonist must dream of a heaven what it will be like our ultimate dreams and rebukes the atheism of h.g.wells and others who updike comes in contact with. The short stories also draw largely especially the early ones on Updike's home life his father and mother, their social and work backgrounds and also his grandparents. In short what strikes the reader is the JAMESEAN Christian consciousness of these short stories which can also be glimpsed in the short story the DEACON where the hero is a sojourner of many Christian churches as a deacon a travelling helper or evangelist more or less but who moves across the country but reluctantly joins another church finally as deacon despite the people he finds in these churches their lukewarm faith but he wins the final battle for at the end for keeping the faith. Updike matured as a short story writer there is a change in motion in these short stories and they are not at the end what they were at the beginnining but he gave up on the wellsian crabs at the end of the time machine a motif in one of the stories to travel in the land of james and the scarlet letter and g.k.chesterton and teilhard to chardin and the protestant imagination and that's where these stories lie and are at their best thought of.They complement the essayist Updike.

No, gave up on this stuff. I know he is "famous" but the prose is tedious and stories unrealistic. Deleted it.