See Also
- John Updike (Critical Survey of Poetry: American Poets)
- John Updike (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- John Updike (Identities & Issues in Literature)
- John Updike (The Sixties in America)
- John Updike (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
- John Updike (Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- First Published: 1964
- Type of Work: Short story
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Parents and children, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Marriage, Religion, Fathers, Adultery, Psychoanalysis or psychoanalysts
The Work
“The Music School” is a short story encompassing all the materials of a novel, for what starts out as a simple first-person narration soon becomes a confession of marital infidelity. The story features themes and techniques Updike often uses, in particular complex metaphor and the tension between materiality and spirituality.
The story revolves around three brief incidents. The narrator, who identifies himself only as Alfred Schweigen, a writer, tells readers that the night before he heard a priest describe a change in “his Church’s attitude...
(The entire page is 704 words.)
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