The Maples Stories

Didn't expect to like this as much as I do. Don't get me wrong: there are portions that are cringe-worthy, not only because they are so stuck in a particular time, but because they feel like they arise from a particular insulated and self-absorbed mind-set. And still, there are other portions that are transcendent in capturing a gesture, an expression, a hard-to-pin-down feeling (and yet Updike pins it as well as anyone could). The subtleties and clumsiness of how we communicate with one another and the wonder that we are able to communicate in spite of our clumsiness...I will seek out the Maples story that is not included here.

Stunning. One of the early chapters - "Wife Wooing" provided the feeling I got when reading Ulysses or Faulkner. That feeling of needing to sit up straighter and to pay more attention. Especially in Wife Wooing, the alliteration, the word selection, the sentence construction were extraordinary. I found my self shaking may head in admiration. Later, I was really put off by "Marching Through Boston" - it was just downright racist. I could have accepted - maybe - an inflection, an allusion but this went on and on and was just not funny, or enlightening. That was about the time I began to think, "wow, this guy is really a dick" and was unable to determine whether I was felling that entirely about Richard the main character or about Updike. show more It came back around over the next few chapters and I suppose some of that - for me- was the familiarity with divorce and separation and the way in which it was captured. Astute, in a word. This was a rewarding experience and I believe it'll be a while before anything else measures up. show less

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.

Richard and Joan Maple are a fictional couple who author John Updike revisited, in short-story form, many times over the span of Updike's long and productive literary career. All of the Maples stories are gathered together here in this Everyman's Pocket Classics edition, in basic chronological order. Therefore, we first see Richard and Joan early in their marriage, then in the next story when their four children are very young, then we see their marriage disintegrating over several stories. Finally, in the last story, they are divorced and married to others and awaiting the birth of their first grand child.

I've read a few of the Maple stories here and there in other Updike short story collection. They definitely pack more of a punch show more being collected together in this format. In this way, it reads much more like a novel than a series of short stories.

While reading The Maples Stories, I had the sense that the characters were real, the dialogue real, the feelings real. Updike was known to carry over much from his real-life experiences into his writings, and this is especially evident in these stories. As a result, Richard and Joan Maple become real people and quite unforgettable. show less

In the introduction to this collection of stories about the disintegration of the marriage of Richard and Joan Maple, Updike says their moral is that "nothing is perfect." That is of course true in a sense, but such a trivial one that we hardly need Updike to tell us so. The real message is that nothing is even good, as most of these stories are simply about how poorly his fictional couple treat one another without giving us more than a glimpse at any other side of their characters, making it almost impossible to sympathize with them---though there are a couple of exceptions that almost make the rest of them worth slogging through. And they are, for the most part, beautifully written, which is of value in and of itself.

A pretty amazing collection of stories. Updike created the Maples in 1956 and periodically updated the reader about their lives over twenty-three years. There is a polished brashness to the writing which seems to counter the happy married life we come to expect from couples in the period. The Maples are no Rob and Laura Petrie but they trudge along and make the best or suffer through it trying to numb their way at times. Enjoyable, but in sometimes a sad or angry way.

Read strictly for recreation

The book was sad. I never read any of Updike's works before so I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was surprised by the content and his style of writing. I expected someone more sombre I guess and I'm not quite sure why. I enjoyed his writing. He does like long sentences and they take surprising turns at times. I was entertained and challenged. The content like I said is sad, it's about the demise of a marriage. I loved a few chapters - the one where he's in love with his wife shortly after they're married with kids, the one where they are selling their house and he is reminiscing in the empty house and the one where they break the news to their kids. I didn't like the one on Grandparents, it felt uncomfortable, un-real or perhaps I show more just could not accept it. The couple belonged together or you fall in love with their flawed selves enough that you want them to be together and that is perhaps what makes Updike such a good writer. show less