Maybe I'm too young to be able to appreciate this yet, but it wasn't my favourite thing to read. The story seemed almost... slow, and the type was too small to keep me interested. I guess I'll try again when I'm 30.

1st edition was the reason I bought it when I saw it a couple of months after Updike died. Good writing makes it easy to read, but I was annoyed at all the senior citizen tourist commentary and ended up depressed at how boring and lonely old age sits just waiting for me. RIP

A silly, stupid book about over-sexed widows who suddenly feel guilty about their promiscuous past. ( )

While I’m still not a big fan of John Updike’s writing, I definitely enjoyed The Widows of Eastwick much more than I did The Witches of Eastwick. I’m glad I took the time to get through Witches though, because I do think it made a huge difference in how much I enjoyed Widows.

The Widows of Eastwick picks up 30 years after Witches left off, with Jane, Alexandra and Sukie each having lost their second husbands, and attempting to make new lives for themselves on their own. After leaving Eastwick and going their separate ways, the ladies have lost touch over the years, but they reconnect when - in an attempt to add some adventure to their solitary lives, they decide to travel together.

I found the book very slow to get going, as it starts off following just Alexandra, the eldest of the three witches who embarks on a journey to the Canadian Rockies. With really only one character in this portion of the story, we spend most of the time inside Alexandra’s head, and the long-winded rambling thoughts are what I don’t enjoy about Updike’s stories. Once Jane, the ‘bitter pill’ of the trio joins Alexandra for an excursion to Egypt, the story begins to pick up pace. But it’s not until they are finally joined by Sukie, their younger and more optimistic sister witch, that The Widows of Eastwick really becomes interesting. After a fun filled adventure in China, the three women eventually return to their old home of Eastwick for a summer, in order to get back to their roots and potentially try and right old wrongs. This is where the bulk of the story takes place, and many things that happened in the first book are addressed, which I’m sure increased my enjoyment of the second novel.

While I don’t care for his wordy writing style, John Updike creates extremely layered characters, and with less time spent on the rambling musings of the various individuals, I found Widows mostly engaging and thought provoking. We are offered a peek into what seems to be a realistic portrayal of coming to terms with aging and the possibility of your own demise, as well as a frank opinion on family relationships. Not to say I still didn’t find myself skimming some portions of this book, but the conclusion to these three widows stories was definitely a more enjoyable and engaging venture than I expected. ( )

A wonderful final novel from a legend. ( )