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Read Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories (1996)

Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (1996)

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Rating
3.97 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0449912256 (ISBN13: 9780449912256)
Language
English
Publisher
random house trade paperbacks

Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories (1996) - Plot & Excerpts

Despite its seeming brevity this is by no means a book to wolf down but rather is one to savour. The stories do tend towards the shorter end of the market, so consuming one per sitting is quite do-able and rewarding. Initially I was a little resistant to the prose - it made me work harder than my previous, highly-enjoyed volume (by Kurt Vonnegut FYI - also fantastic). What John Updike seems to do is conjure sharp tales of incomplete characters seeking something else. The lovelorn, flawed hero is at the centre of his universe but rarely becomes an object of sympathy; rather, a mirror is held up to the flaws which are presented so matter of factly that at times you need to re-read a line to see if it " really said that." Yes it did is most common outcome. Which leads towards another point to raise - Updike's use of language is magnificent. Compared to the overrated Kerouac, for example, or even the wonderful Kurt, he stands head and shoulders clear with his turn of phrase and depth of thought. There may be very little of a plot at times, (Hemingway-like it is there) but the way he turns language on his lathe is frequently, unsettlingly brilliant. Occasionally he name-drops Joyce, often seconds after writing something so Joycean it is uncanny. Clearly an influence; the coined word tumblesome to describe a toddler being an example that rolls into mind.The stories "seem" autobiographical and if they are they astonish with honesty - he certainly does not paint himself as heroic in The Blessed Man of Boston..." for example, but he also does not condemn his questionable behaviour. Ditto to the hero of "The Persistence of Desire," although the earlier stories (printed at least) have a more traditional distance between narrator and protagonist that is basically eroded by his last two tales. In titles like "Packed dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car," his broad narrative ranges, so stories are at best connected by theme rather than incident, which seems to me an excellent innovation. I do not know whether versions of this idea pre-date this type of story but I do know that it has proliferated since, most notably in blogging.At one point he notes "In the U.S.the great writers produce works which people do not enjoy, because they are so depressing to read." This book is, on the surface, depressing in many tales but the virtuoso telling and craft elevate it. Even in the depths of ennui (it doesn't really mine misery) you have thoughts like, "Wow, that was a great way to put that." The eponymous, existential tract is one of the best stories, along with the two rambling closers. Early stories like Flight and Still Life also have a touch of the Dostoevsky about them in their completeness, candidness and desolation. So to conclude, at his worst he is a bit like Dostoevsky, at his best like Joyce: this book is fabulous.

Back in early April at a talk about Shakespeare’s timeless works, my friend shoved a copy of John Updike’s short story collection Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories into my hands. I said nothing, then, and he merely mumbled that he’d brought this book for me. After the event ended, I asked him, again, why he had given me the book, to which he replied he wanted me to read it. Oh, okay, I answered and thanked him, then put the book in the paper bag I’d had gotten with this another book I had purchased. A few days later, we were spending time together and the conversation arrived at the topic of Updike’s book. I asked if he had read it before passing it on to me; his reply — no, he hadn’t read it, and he wanted to know if it was worth his time and energy by making me read it first. It took me about a fortnight to read the collection — although I do confess that to me the time I spent reading Updike’s stories seems to have gone on for longer than just two weeks. You know why I think it took me so long to read the book? I think it might have been due to my distractedness and inability to focus during those days. I suppose reading short stories at such times helps because the stories are small and you can finish one story per 30-minute reading session. But, it didn’t help that Updike’s metaphors, imagery, and the kind of language he uses is so intense that I had to take frequent breaks to allow what I’d read to settle down in my mind — like dust settles on a surface, or the way in which salt and sugar settle down in a beaker of water. There is certain denseness to his prose, which requires a reader to be fully attentive as they read. Maybe my experience of reading Updike wasn’t as good as it should have been as I found myself unable to focus on anything at a stretch, exactly what was needed while reading this book. The stories I liked best were ‘Walter Briggs’, ‘Still Life’, ‘Flight’, ‘A Sense of Shelter’, ‘Dear Alexandros’, ‘Wife-Wooing’, ‘Pigeon Feathers’, ‘Home’, ‘Archangel’, ‘The Astronomer’, ‘A & P’, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’.

What do You think about Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories (1996)?

Updike's prose is astonishing - it elevates the mundane into the spiritual, with an earnestness that defies Nabokov and with the precision of a painter. It's no wonder that JU was an art student; his stories remind one of paintings.The collection is at its best when JU writes in an autobiographical mode. I sense the influence of Proust (one of his favorite writers) in his attempt to regain lost time. "Flight," "Pigeon Feathers," "The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother's Thimble, and Fanning Island," "Home," and "A Sense of Shelter" are written in this Proustian mode, only they're more relatable to me because they come from the pen of an American writer. These are some of the best short stories I've ever read.The collection, however, has a few misfires, especially when JU writes in a more "experimental" way. He's just not Joyce, Woolf, or Lawrence - and that's fine. Stories like "Should Wizard Hit Mommy?," "Archangel," and "Lifeguard" are so overwrought and overcooked that they read like creative writing exercises and failed attempts to be "avant-garde."
—Paul Gleason

boy with stutter suffers from unrequited love. man with dilated eyes attempts to seduce a woman in an optometrist's office. couple in a disintegrating marriage struggle to remember an old friend's name on a long car ride home. earnest but frightened boy learns something about death when he is forced to shoot pigeons who have roosted in the family barn. a son learns to respect his father after an altercation with a bad driver. this collection is full of touching, seemingly commonplace incidences such as these. there's so much spontaneity, but it's also very precise, very believable, very... good. just good. updike seems to have discovered an entire quarry of human emotion in which he set to work leaving no stone unturned. and it is written so well, in his own sort of hyperrealism, that i constantly felt deja vu when he described tiny parts of the day or motions of the hand or rambling thoughts with such clarity. the warmth, wisdom and possibility in the stories makes me think of my grandfather, which isn't surprising, as Updike is himself a baby boomer. he captures American optimism so well, without editorializing or straying from a realistic style, that it reminds me of Norman Rockwell's cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. above all, this is just really exceptional writing.
—Keith Michael

In this fine collection of stories, I especially liked "A & P". By using “walks” with its “s” in the first sentence – “In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” – Updike immediately characterizes his first person narrator as young or marginally educated or of working class background. In fact, the narrator is a nineteen-year-old cashier in a small New England grocery store. The story is short, a gem-like vignette, and Updike has the tone, the psychology, and the speech of his characters just right. His metaphors are creative and perfectly apt.This coming-of-age story, reminiscent of Salinger, is briefly told. Three girls some into the grocery store for a single item, “fancy herring,” which suggests to the narrator a higher class of society than his own. The narrator, Sammy, and his fellow cashier watch them as they navigate the aisles, observing them and speculating, mostly just appreciating them, the eroticism of the experience obvious. Updike’s descriptions of Sammy’s and Stokesie’s observations, thoughts, and conclusions match them to perfection. Finally, as the girls are checking out, the dour and proper manager, an older gentleman (a Sunday School teacher, of course, and a friend of Sammy’s parents), chastises them for their “inappropriate” attire, embarrassing all three but especially the most poised and attractive, called by Sammy “the Queen.” As the girls leave the store, Sammy protests to the manager about his having humiliated the girls and, in a kind of chivalric gesture, quits his job, taking off and leaving his apron and bow tie. Outside he knows that he has made a decision that somehow may make the world harder for him hereafter, his having marked out his own path, independent of his parents and an older generation.The delight of this story is Updike’s having captured a situation and its characters so perfectly, having been able to step inside people unlike himself and know and communicate what they think, feel, and how they respond to life. He does this with such skill that the reader “knows” that he is correct, and the reader in turn for a short time inhabits the lives of people outside his own experience or at least awareness. The transitional decade of the 60’s, with its movement from New England Puritanism to a new liberation, is made clear. Updike’s ear for dialogue and his ability to inhabit someone else’s skin in the most mundane of circumstances is uncanny and mesmerizing. And his writing itself is flawless, using syntax and diction, metaphor and pace, in a way that is almost magical; his is a virtuoso literary performance. I enjoyed this little story very much.
—Bruce

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