Customer Reviews

Trust Me: Short Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What, really, can one say against John Updike? Where, in these stories, can he be faulted? Well, the question need not be so rhetorical. One might, for example, consider the charge that his material is relatively unvarying. Time and again in his short stories Updike returns to the same territory: the white, middle-class couple caught up in the flux of an extra-marital affair. This is the central theme of no less than six of these twenty-two tales, but it touches the edges of many of the others too. And of these others all are confined to the same domestic and social milieu - from 'Killing', in which a daughter must cope with her father's death from Alzheimer's Disease, to 'The City', in which a salesman unexpectedly contracts appendicitis while on a business trip. Where is the broader vision - the black characters, the homosexuals, the political radicals? They are absent from Updike's vision. And yet, if this artist paints on a restricted canvas, it is the detail and style of the brushstrokes that redeems his art. 'Trust Me' is as reliable - as trustworthy - a demonstration as any work in the Updike corpus that the man's linguistic style is extraordinary. Central to it is an astonishing facility for metaphor; no less characteristic is his ear for the musical, his faculty for critical analysis, and a taste for symbolism that is at once unobtrusive and yet deeply satisfying. With such an abundance of stylistic gifts all working simultaneously, the unchanging world of Updike's characters remains fresh and, in 'Trust Me', fresher than ever.

Men, women, what works and what does not - this seems to be the central theme of Trust Me. This was my first Updike book and as a collection of short stories, Trust Me represents a wise choice in this regard. The reader gets a taste of the Updike style in several short works which, despite being rich in detail and innuendo, are easily consumable - especially if read from start to finish without any long breaks.

This is only the second Updike book I have read so I'm not overly familiar with his work. This collection of stories explores the relationships between men and women, husbands and wives and many times their lovers. This is not an uplifting collection as most of the characters have serious personality flaws and troubled partnerships. Out of 20 or so stories there were 4 I really liked: "Trust Me", "Killing", "Still of Some Use" and "Getting into the Set". The rest were mainly OK, a few were very dull. Mr. Updike can certainly write. Several times I stopped reading to let one of his turns of phrase or description really sink in because it was so beautiful. There are times he overdoes it, gets too complex when simplicity would do. I found a few of the stories, like "The City" to be pointless and after getting halfway through, a sameness crept into the tales. The characters started becoming each other, their lives and foibles very much the same as a story or two before. I'm glad I read the book. Its always a pleasure to read a writer who can put words together with as much elegance as Updike can, but the overall experience of Trust Me was pedestrian.

Amazon, please print the reviewer's name, so I can hunt him down and pummel him but good. Obviously there are lots of opinions in this world, but this guy clearly can't feel his heart when he reads, which I guess is why he's a critic--read 'critical.'

I'm a professional writer, and this book was one of my inspirations and still is. "Unstuck" got me started by quietly blowing my mind. But every story is rife with brilliance, including one that the reviewer called a 'failure,' the subtle "Poker Night." Just to prove my point, I'll add a spoiler, so don't read on if you don't want to know, but "Poker Night" is about a man who has just been diagnosed with cancer earlier that day, and that night goes to play poker with his buddies. But he doesn't want to tell them about his cancer, to keep his life normal. So he in essence participates in the game itself with a symbolically powerful poker face. The story has haunted me, in a great way, for years.

Sorry to usurp the title, but trust me...this Library Journal guy has no business critiquing literature. "Trust Me" is flat-out literary brilliance.

Trust Me shows that Updike deserves his place among the true greats, such as Cheever. Each story in Trust Me works, although some more than others (a few go on longer than they need to). Updike has a fine ear for the malaise of the middle-aged, middle-class man or woman who is mostly past being particularly enthusiastic about life's possibilities. Updike doesn't have contempt for his subjects, but neither does he have a lot of sympathy. This is a beautifully crafted set of short stories. There is often a slyness to the phrases and sentences, such as is found in his classic short story, A&P.

The audio casset version of this book is outstanding and is read by the author, which is always a great asset. The short stories are artful character studies that vividly describe the souls of your neighbors, your friends, or yourself in a modern setting. The details are so charming you'll want to listen to it over and over to pick up all the nuances.

Updike can write splendidly. However, he cannot be compared favorably to even good past or great contemporary authors. In this book Updike is more of the same labored almost beautiful writing. I found Trust Me to be much of the same. For a good short story look elsewhere. However if you are interested in Updike read his earlier books. It seems that as his career lengthened he changed his writing to try and leave a more refined and antiseptic waft in the readers mind, perhaps he had thoughts of stuffy British grandeur.

If you are looking to be knocked on your butt by a short story book, forget this and go buy "The Stories of John Cheever" IMMEDIATELY. I would suggest that book to ANYONE. It is up there with "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Beloved," and "A Separate Peace" as the best books I've read. But if you have read that and liked it, this book is a good one. I would have given it 3 1/2 stars if I could, but oh well. These stories are elegant, eloquent, and solid, but not as magical as the world John Cheever created. But the writing is good. The stories move. I was never bored, and I was even very moved sometimes. I think the best one in it is the one called "More Stately Mansions."