2024 the best american short stories of the century john updike review
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In this brilliant late-career collection, John Updike revisits many of the locales of his early fiction: the small-town Pennsylvania of Olinger Stories, the sandstone farmhouse of Of the Farm, the exurban New England of Couples and Marry Me, and Henry Bech’s Manhattan of artistic ambition and taunting glamour. To a dozen short stories spanning the American Century, the author has added a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Several strands of the Rabbit saga come together here as, during the fall and winter holidays of 1999, Harry’s survivors fitfully entertain his memory while pursuing their own happiness up to the edge of a new millennium. Love makes Updike’s fictional world go round—married love, filial love, feathery licks of erotic love, and love for the domestic particulars of Middle American life.
ASIN : B000XUACWS
Publisher : Random House (December 18, 2007)
Publication date : December 18, 2007
Language : English
File size : 3583 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 386 pages
Page numbers source ISBN : 0345442016
Reviewer: Mickey Finn
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great item, super delivery. ***** 5/5 Stars ðð»
Review: Super.
Reviewer: Mary- Jude Neal
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Ties up loose ends to the Rabbit books
Review: Updike's Rabbit series is a true modern American classic. I have read all four several times, and the last two, "Rabbit is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest" more than that.This is just the second time I've read "Rabbit Remembered." I don't recall being very impressed the first time, but I think I was so turned off by the fact that Janice had married one of my least favorite characters, Ronnie Harrison, that the experience was spoiled from the get go. I was expecting more of an exploration from Janice's p.o.v. but that alas that was not to be.My total undisguised admiration for Updike does not change the fact that his writing reveals a fundamental chauvinism. Initially, with Rabbit out of the picture, I thought this novella would provide a great chance for Updike to redeem himself a bit, round out the Janice character, give her more depth. But that doesn't happen and I was disappointed.On this second reading though, I really appreciate his efforts in exploring the previously on the fringes, Annabelle. In so brief a work, he really manages to develop her as a character and tie everything together seamlessly.Reading this short sequel is like reading a "whatever happened to" expose. It accomplishes the one thing that keeps all readers of all genres to keep turning pages. It is a revisitation to old friends, that no matter what happens between those pages, we can go back and visit whenever we like. I just wish there were more pages to this amazing chronology.The short stories included in this book are nice too. But there is only one reason anyone would read this book, and in recognizable fashion, Updike delivers.
Reviewer: Mary
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I Have Been Missing Rabbit soo much!
Review: Having read all the Rabbit books in the year they were written, I feel I grew up with Rabbit and John Updike--then Rabbit went to rest and so did John Updike. It was like losing a contemporary or old friend! I was so excited when I found this remembrance and it lived up to all my hopes. It was a few minutes with a long lost friend! It soothed my soul. The short stories were excellent as his almost always are. Updike is hard to read , BUT SO worth the effort! However they probably mean more if you read them in order and were about Rabbit"s age with each one, but if you can't go back in time and do that--read them anyway--in order--you won't be sorry!
Reviewer: Peter J. Bailey
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautiful Volume
Review: This signed first edition enhances my Updike collection of firsts.
Reviewer: Jason Adams
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Missing Ingredient
Review: Rabbit Angstrom may have been a problematic personality, but this âsequelâ novella is limp without him. I have noticed a trend with authors that revisit a character one time too many. This story lacks the polish of the previous entries. The pop culture references seem unnatural. Irving was perceptive about things in the 60s, 70s, and 80s; but, his take on computers in the 90s is a bit too âgee whiz.â This book was best at providing closure to fans of the âRabbitâ series - though I would put forward that âRabbit at Restâ did a great job on its own.
Reviewer: D. C. Carrad
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not his best; buy it anyway.
Review: Read the novella ("Rabbit Remembered") first; it's worth the price of the book all by itself. A very interesting fictional experiment -- a piece about the lingering influence of a man ten years dead on his family and acquaintances. I have read all the earlier Rabbit Angstrom novels (several times) and enjoyed this thoroughly; I'm not sure how much you will like it if you are not familiar with the earlier works.As to the other stories...well, bad Updike is better than most other authors' best efforts. These are not his best and are disappointing after his most recent short story collection (The Afterlife and Other Stories).If you're new to Updike don't start here -- but if you are already a fan there is much to enjoy. As usual the prose is flawless and delightful even though some of the characters are underdone and some of the stories structurally flawed -- a rarity in Updike's work.
Reviewer: Bob Hildago
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: John Updike is a master of words
Review: Updike can describe a simple scene in a thousand words and keeps your interest a and your eyes glued to his words
Reviewer: Hotspurhal
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent read
Review: Every story was great and even the minor the characters in the final Rabbit story are brilliantly crafted and developed.
Reviewer: Shupi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I bought this for the Rabbit sequel. I wasn't disappointed, it's just a brilliant read.
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I'm a big John Updike fan and this book doesn't disappoint. It contains some superb short stories and a novella continuing the Rabbit Angstrom connection.
Reviewer: Jean-Philippe
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Les personnages des nouvelles vieillissent ( en même temps que l'auteur) et leur regard sur l'existence est très finement analysé. Des petits riens qui resurgissent quelques décennies après, les anciens amants ou amantes vus avec le regard d'antan. Une suite à la série des "Rabbit" où une fille fait son apparition, bouleversant la famille, les personnages presque oubliés, comme Mim réapparaissent, et une fin curieuse où un certain ordre familial revient avec son poids de convenances. Les personnages sont heureux de revenir à une certaine stabilité, après l'histoire assez mouvementée de la série dédiée à Harry Angstrom. L'auteur a dû prendre un certain plaisir à écrire cette suite. L'écriture est parfaite. Un avant goût du parfaitement achevé "My Father's Tears" paru après la mort de J. Updike.
Reviewer: Douglas Kemp
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: This is a series of short stories and one longer novella, which is a sequel to the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy, and which is really the primary reason I read the volume. The short stories are quintessential Updike, in which a mature man looks wistfully back on earlier times in his life, usually involving an adulterous affair and set in Philadelphia. It is richly nostalgic, Updike re-creating the now disappeared tenor of small town life in the USA of twenty to forty years ago.In Rabbit Remembered, it is 1999, and Janice (Harryâs wife) has married Ronnie Harrison, and they are living in the old Springer house, with Harryâs son, Nelson, who has split from Pru. Janice gets a shock when a woman, Annabelle, arrives at her house one morning unannounced, claiming to be Harryâs child from an affair forty years ago with Ruth. Harry had suspected that Annabelle was his daughter, but Ruth had denied it when he challenged her about years ago, and only revealed the truth of her parentage as her own death approaches. This creates a variety of responses within the family, with Nelson pleased to have a half-sister, while other members are less impressed. Matters come to a conclusion, of sorts, during the last day of 1999, though the conclusion is a little lame disappointing, and it seemed rather rushed.
Reviewer: Anon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Really enjoyed final Rabbit story, expected this to be a short story, but a novel included after list of short stories. First short stories excellent and involving, last few didn't work for me.