Villages (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 2004
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: From the 1930's to 2002
- Setting: A series of small towns in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts
- Principal Characters: Owen Mackenzie, Phyllis Mackenzie, Julia Mackenzie, Ed Mervine, Faye, Vanessa, Karen, Allisa
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Husbands, United States or Americans, Sex or sexuality, Twentieth century, Villages, Pennsylvania, Adultery, Connecticut, Men, Old age or elderly people, Retirement, Massachusetts
- Locales: Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts
Those familiar with the John Updike corpus will find this latest novel typical of his work: biting humor, description of the ordinary with extraordinary clarity and carefully chosen language, fleshed-out pictures of his flawed but compelling characters. Perhaps predictably, Updike's fleshing out includes pervasively bawdy, sexually explicit scenes which, in spite of their prolonged detail, come off remarkably less sordid than similar descriptions one might find in romance novels. The passages, always well written and stubbornly candid, float above the tawdry and the titillating. They...
[The entire page is 1722 words long]
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