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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Dissatisfactions of Marriage (4.3*s),
By J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Couples: A Novel (Paperback)
Set in fictional Tarbox, MA in the early 1960's, this book of 1968 was certainly a risqu' and revealing look at marriage in a small suburban community at a time of increasing sexual awareness and openness. Looking back, the sexual content is actually rather mild, but, more importantly, it seems that the type of communities and lifestyles that Updike describe have been swallowed up by vast, numbing suburbs, where traffic is terrible, wives work, and neighbors are strangers.
Yet, the book is a keen look at the dissatisfactions of marriage. Most of the couples knew or suspected that unfaithfulness was occurring among themselves, but they seemed to understand, if only subconsciously, that infidelity was or could be an outlet for the limitations of a spouse. The central character is home remodeler Piet Hanema, married to the sublime, but unapproachable, Angela, who seems to be happiest when in the arms of his latest lover. Updike's entry into this world is at the point when the Whitman's move in: he a professor and Elizabeth, or Foxy, a tall, winsome beauty who is also pregnant. Their old home on the coast requires extensive renovation providing the opportunity for Piet and Foxy to start a complicated relationship that that has community-wide consequences. The book is a challenging read containing Updike's typical complex descriptions of various scenes, etc. And the interactions of the various couples, usually at some sort of party, while revealing and sometimes insightful, do get tedious. The author hardly advocates this sort of group infidelity. In fact, there is a pervading sense of sadness about the book as many of the couples go their own way, their problems resolved or not. It is a simplification to label this book as one primarily about "wife swapping." For one, that is wrong, and secondly it is about people trying to find some happiness or connectedness in their lives.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love thy neighbor,
This review is from: Couples: A Novel (Paperback)
Updike's portrait of the upper middle class in a sleepy Boston suburb in 1963 when people actually had more time than they knew what to do with seems almost as distant and foreign to our overworked present as Fitzgerald's Jazz Age. Set on the eve of the sexual revolution, the novel explores a circle of couples who nearly devour each other out of jealousy, lust and boredom. Yet, the book is not without its tender sides, as Updike manages some hard-won sympathy for his protagonist Piet Hanema, the philandering grown boy of a man who does very bad things for very sad reasons. Richly-detailed with references of the time, COUPLES is a vivid snapshot of America, or at least one slice of it, in 1963.
26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not His Best,
This review is from: Couples: A Novel (Paperback)
Having read many of Updike's books (he's my fav. author), I rate Couples in the middle. The book is full of subtle symbolism and not-so-subtle symbolism, and has the Updike trademark of colorful imagery. It is a fair treatment of the complexities of infidelity.However, I found reading it a bit of a chore. If you want to read Updike, this one should not be your first. I'd recommend the second Rabbit book, Rabbit Redux.
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