S. (Magill’s Literary Annual 1989)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Epistolary novel
- Time of Work: The 1980's
- Setting: The Arizona desert
- Principal Characters: Sarah Worth, Charles Worth, Pearl Worth, Mrs. Price, Midge Hibbens, Arhat Mindadali
- 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
Sarah Worth, the heroine of Updike's final novel in the trilogy he has written to retell the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850), repeats this aphorism, supposedly the Buddha's last words, in one of the communiqués she sends to her best friend, Midge Hibbens, from her new “home” in the Arizona desert. Having abandoned her husband of twenty-some years, Sarah has fled to the desert to seek refuge and inner solace as a member of a commune run by the Indian guru Arhat Mindadali. There, she comes in closer touch with the teachings of the Buddha—if one can...
[The entire page is 1906 words long]
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