Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories [Hardcover]

John Updike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1962

"Some of the most beautiful writing in contemporary American literature is between the covers of this book . . ." BOSTON HERALD

The triumphant collection of short stories by America's most acclaimed novelist.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A Brilliant Performance."

-- The Boston Globe

"Electricity lights his prose like a Christmas tree....So full of fire and ice that it almost breaks through to some 'fourth dimension' in writing."

-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Updike is not merely talented; he is bold, resourceful and intensely serious....We hear talk now and then of a breakthrough in fiction, the achievement of a new attitude and hence a new method; something like that seems close at hand in Pigeon Feathers."

-- Saturday Review

"Some of the most beautiful writing in contemporary American literature is between the covers of this book."

-- Boston Herald

"A sustained pleasure... A world seen and described and interpreted by a subtle, poetic, intellectual, wondering consciousness...These are wonderfully written pieces."

-- Library Journal


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

"Some of the most beautiful writing in contemporary American literature is between the covers of this book . . ." BOSTON HERALD

The triumphant collection of short stories by America's most acclaimed novelist. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (March 12, 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394440560
• ISBN-13: 978-0394440569
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,320,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 lived in Massachusetts. He was the father of four children and the author of more than fifty books, including collections of short stories, poems, essays, and criticism. His novels won the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal. A previous collection of essays, Hugging the Shore, received the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. John Updike died on January 27, 2009, at the age of 76.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is there a better book of stories anywhere?, March 7, 2004

By 

Mark Schaeffer (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pigeon Feathers: And Other Stories (Paperback)

If there is, you have my attention. Maybe Isaac Babel's Collected Stories or Fitzgerald's Selected Stories. I've been writing for 27 years; I may have written three sentences that compare with the average in an Updike story. In "Flight" he captures more in several sentences about family than I've disentangled through an entire career. Sorry for being self-referential; it's a measure of my awe. Updike's magic is that he can tell a story in a single sentence. If you only know Updike through his novels, you're in for a treat. By my lights, this is one of the greatest living story writers and this is the book that made that clear.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ecstatic prose; magic from the end of a pen., December 29, 1999

By 

C. Whitaker "Kojo_00" (KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pigeon Feathers: And Other Stories (Paperback)

These stories are sublime. Read "Flight" and try not to grunt with pleasure! And let Archangel take you on a trip through the magic of words. Updike is at his best here. "Pigeon Feathers," the story for which the book is named, will astound you. Each story is a gem. If you want to read fiction that is beyond the assembly-line garbage...far, far beyond...read this book. See for yourself that America is still producing world-class literature. If you are a writer of short stories, make this your Bible.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glitnings of Light, September 20, 1997

By 

Bryan Farrow ([e-mail]) (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pigeon Feathers: And Other Stories (Paperback)

The images in these stories are so lyrical, so sadly ethereal, I'd not be surprised to find the pages of Pigeon Feathers flap invisibly from my hands and into those of a Pennsylvania native, whose land, childhood and eventual disillusionment are so heart-wrenchingly documented in this collection. "A&P," a staple of contemporary American fiction anthologies, is a companion piece
to longer, stronger stories, like "Flight" and the final two episodic stories, showcasing the defining moments of adolescence and young adulthood; moments when the voice inside assuring us of our own greatness and immortality grows fainter and fainter.
Philosophically, this collection is held together by the idea that beauty, love and fame are tenuous phenomena, no more substantial than
shapes of light skating across a room, or the images of a film projector (see "Flight"). This motif is always at the forefront of Updike's poetry and diction. ("The Persistance of Desire," which plays upon the indispensible role of eyesight, literal and figurative, ingenuously spins a pun out of the optical effect of the persistance of vision for its title.)
This philosophy rarely overshadows Updike's gift for an unorthodox, reflective style of narration. Conflicts figure prominently in every story, but almost always the battle is staged in the heart and mind of its protagonist. Updike is a Cicero and Keats blessed with a unique penchant for American storytelling.