My Father's Tears and Other Stories by John Updike

My Father's Tears and Other Stories by John Updike

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.

'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

John Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and died in January 2009. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of the New Yorker and after 1957 lived in Massachusetts until his death. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780241144596
ISBN 10	0241144590
Title	My Father's Tears and Other Stories
Author	John Updike
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2009-07-02
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.