S. (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Epistolary literature
- Subjects: North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Marriage, Religion, West, U.S., Spiritual life or spirituality, Women, Money, Cults, Arizona, Southwest, Letters, Buddhism, Sex roles
- Locales: Arizona
John Updike’s thirteenth novel is a roman a clef with two keys, only one of which works. The one that does not is the key from Hawthorne’s classic novel. Like Hester Prynne, branded with the “A” for adultery, Sarah Worth earns the “S” in the title for the initial of her first name, for the letter of generalized sin, and for her condition of sannyasin, a Sanskrit word meaning pilgrim. A well-heeled, well-traveled Hester of the early 1980’s, Sarah deceives her stodgy but decent husband Charles (a bland Roger Chillingworth) through her brief liaison with the Arhat, also known...
[The entire page is 509 words long]
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