Title:
The afterlife : and other stories
Author:
Publication Date:
2012
1994
Publication Information:
New York : Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2012.
©1994
Physical Description:
322 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN:
9780449912010
Abstract:
To the hero of the title story of this collection, all of England has the glow of an afterlife: "A miraculous lacquer lay upon everything, beading each roadside twig ... each reed of thatch, each tiny daisy trembling in the grass." All of these stories, each in its own way, partake of this glow, as life beyond middle age is explored and found to have its own exquisite dearness. As death approaches, existence takes on, for some of Updike's aging characters, a translucence, a magical fragility; vivid memory and casual misperception lend the mundane an antic texture, and the backward view, lengthening, acquires a certain grandeur. Here is a world where wonder stubbornly persists, and fresh beginnings almost outnumber losses.
Contents:
The afterlife -- Wildlife -- Brother grasshopper -- Conjunction -- The journey to the dead -- The man who became a soprano -- Short Easter -- A sandstone farmhouse -- The other side of the street -- Tristan and Iseult -- George and Vivian -- Farrell's caddie -- The rumor -- Falling asleep up north -- The brown chest -- His mother inside him -- Baby's first step -- Playing with dynamite -- The black room -- Cruise -- Grandparenting.
Subject Term:
Language:
English
