John Updike: The Widows Of Eastwick

[titania7]

Attention, everyone! Just when you thought those ladies of Eastwick were a thing of the past, Updike brings them to the forefront again. This time, the vixens are "dry," "brittle" widows--brewing up plans to go to Eastwick for a summer vacation. In addition to the three witches -- Sukie, Alexandra, and Jane, another character is back. He is none other than Christopher Gabriel, the man who was the ladies' nemesis in the previous book. Described as a "disciple-of-the-devil" in this review, Gabriel does his best to hex Jane, Sukie, and Alexandra via esoteric spells.

Interested? Intrigued? Of course you are! Admit it!
Click on the link below to read further details:


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/bo...ks&oref=slogin

If you have trouble accessing the site through this link, you will have to go to this link and actually register at the New York Times site. Don't have heart failure now. It's 100% free! (no money required, no calories ingested, nada).

http://www.nytimes.com/



Enjoy!

~Titania


"One out of every three hundred and twelve
Americans is a bore, for instance, and
a healthy male adult bore consumes each
year one and a half times his own weight
in other people's patience."
~John Updike
Assorted Prose (1965) Confessions of a Wild Bore

[Stewart]

Just when you thought those ladies of Eastwick were a thing of the past...

Ach, we've known this was coming out for over a year now. I saw it today, when out browsing Borders, and wasn't in the slightest tempted to buy it. A, because I've not read The Witches Of Eastwick, and B, because I'm getting more and more of the opinion that Updike is an interminable bore. I loved the opening of Rabbit, Run, extended car drive scene aside, but the novel fizzled off somewhere for me and, last month, I had a stab at his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (the only one with not a shred of adultery), and was asleep in no time at all.

[Mirabell]

Updike is such an incredible stylist. I haven't read his stories but I'd guess he is a great story writer because his novels rarely get their act together. I love all the rabbit books and I have read half a dozen other Updike novels, none without at least some joy, but they all disappoint. The degree to which they disappoint varies, but the result is always the same.

[titania7]

Oh, Mirabell, you simply must read some of Updike's short stories!!
I like them even better than I like his novels.

Cordially,
Titania

[Eric]

Updike's sequel to "The Witches of Eastwick", i.e. "The Widows of Eastwick", was reviewed on the British cultural half-hour, the Newsnight Review on BBC2 last Friday (24th October 2008). The panel consisted of Sarah Churchwell and Candace Bushnell, both from the US of A, plus head of the (London-based) Institute of Contemporary Arts, Ekow Eshun, and author Will Self.

I'm sorry to say that I cannot remember what the general consensus about this novel was. But there were hints of "old man rehashing and remoulding old material". Most of the panel were Updike fans, but I think people tended to think he wasn't quite as good, this time round.

Just reporting; I've not read either novel myself.

[Stewart]

I'm sorry to say that I cannot remember what the general consensus about this novel was. But there were hints of "old man rehashing and remoulding old material". Most of the panel were Updike fans, but I think people tended to think he wasn't quite as good, this time round.

I'll go and watch it on BBC iPlayer just now and report back.

[Stewart]

More like a bunch of travelogues, condescending, ranting about how life isn't what it was back when Updike was growing up, relevant, irrelevant, a master of surface, meandering, less verbose than typical Updike, and not much reason for existing - these are some of the thoughts put forward by the panel.

[titania7]

Stewart, thanks for "filling is in" on what transpired on the BBC Newsnight Review. Overall, it sounds like it was disappointing.

I suspected this Eastwick book wouldn't compare to the original--which, by the way, I haven't read either, Eric. Actually, I hadn't been impressed that favorably with Updike's novels (rather, I liked his short stories) until my ex-boyfriend recommended Gertrude and Claudius. This book is a highly innovative work, dealing with the imagined relationship among Shakespeare's characters in "Hamlet." Parts of it do read like a sex romp, but, overall, it's quite cleverly put together. On the strength of this book, I might just head down to the basement and pull out my worn-out copy of The Witches of Eastwick that I got at a library sale for 75 cents. I did say might, didn't I?

Then again, I could always pop a DVD of the film adaptation of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Susan Sarandon, Michelle
Pfeiffer, and Cher into my DVD player. Only thing is, it's only loosely based on the novel (plus, I don't care for Jack Nicholson).

~Titania


"There is nothing worse than giving the longest of legs
to the smallest of ideas."
~Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro

[Jan Mbali]

One of the local Hospices (for the dying) got given piles of remaindered new books. I got The Widows of Eastwick for the equivalent of 80c - it had nbeen remaindered down to around $7. A sort fo living death for a book. Loved the film of the Witches of Eastwick (called the Bitches of Eastwikc once by some wit in a film) but did not even know there was a book behind the film, far less than Updike wrote it. He generally bores me beyond appreciating a chapter or two for the polished and rythmic prose, which reads like good poetry at its best . Enjoyed the Widows for the same reason and stuck with it to the end, mostly because it is perceptive on old age, which I am galloping towards. Was somewhat irritated by chunks of travelogues, shallow politics and some National Geographic science he got off the TV or internet. Not uninteresting but inserted without much thought or enough Updike irony to excuse it. But that prose, good in parts (like the curates rotten egg!), can be enjoyed on its own merit, even if it does not say much, like many a much admired poem when you look at it too closely. That poem Requiem, that I got through a link in a post on one of the Witches, is technically superb and enjoyable in exactly that way.