tJohn Updike is a master short story writer, and there are several gems in “Trust Me: Short Stories” a 1987 collection of stories from 1962 to 1987, most having appeared in The New Yorker.tI had read only one story before: “Unstuck” which originally ran in the Feb. 3, 1962, The New Yorker. It is a favorite of mine with its story of a man and woman living in Massachusetts trying to get their car out of the snow, the action an extended metaphor for their marriage and, as well, the actions in their marriage bed.t“The Other” is an interesting story that runs from the 1950s through the 1980s, begins on the Harvard University campus and ends in downtown Los Angeles. Hank Arnold meets a woman named Priscilla who has an identical sister named Susan, the other of the title. The story tells his complicated relations with both of them.tOne of the best stories was “The City,” which recounts the story of a salesman in his 50s flying into an unnamed American city but being hospitalized for a burst appendix before he could attend to any of his appointments. The details about the waiting in the emergency room for examinations and tests, the surgery and his recovery, the routines of the hospital staff are so fine that I imagine Updike used personal experience to write the story – or amazingly thorough research.tUpdike ends the story, “The taxi took him straight to the airport. Carson saw nothing of the city but the silhouettes besides the highway and the highway’s scarred center strip. For an instance after takeoff, a kind of map spread itself underneath him, and then was gone. Yet afterwards, thinking back upon the farm voices, the distant skyscrapers, the night visits of the nurses, the doctors with their unseen, unsullied homes, the dozens of faces risen to the surface of his pain, he seemed the have come to know the city intimately; it was like, on the other of his trips, a woman who, encountered in a bar and paid at the end, turns ceremony inside out, and bestows herself without small talk.”
There are many things to like about this collection of short stories written between 1962 and 1987 but one intriguing thing was that while the themes of these older stories, marriage, divorce, infedelity, remain with us, the context has changed. One marriage unraveled after a husband finds a home made valentine from a man in his wife's dresser--today such discoveries are made by accessing emails, facebook etc.The claudestine rendezvous described in the stories would both be easier and harder with the advent of today's constant cellphonesMy favorite story was "More Stately Mansions" which I enjoyed reading as much today as I did when it was first written years ago; it recounts a principal's memory of a couple who moved into his New England town and became the center of the town's young, progressive, anti-war group which attracts the narrator and his wife. The detailed flashback takes us back to the time of political and cultural controversy and the affair that is central to the story as if it was today and the story's end which brings all the characters to the then present time puts a somewhat sad perspective on the timeI also enjoyed "The Other" a reminiscence by a retired tax lawyer of his courtship, marriage and divorce with his wife all in the context of his obsession with her twin sister; the obsession does not overcome the recounting of his life, it simply adds a perspective to it and leads to a very interesting endingA third favorite was "Leaf Season" which describes a weekend in Vermont with five couples and their children. There is great dialogue and detail that make you think you are actually a voyeur tucked away in the house watching the bridge games, the meals, the volleyball and the alcohol fueled flirtations but it the narrative that fills in gaps of the people's lives, relationships and crushes that make this a complete storyI like almost all the stories but these three favorites alone make this collection a great read
What do You think about Trust Me (1996)?
A collection from the master, who just passed away last month. John Updike wrote his short stories about day-to-day life in the suburbs, and some people faulted him for using such a narrow canvas, but there are always moments in his stories that take your breath away. He was an absolute master at using the English language, and his sentences sing. Someone once described him as "the Fred Astaire of American letters", and it was a good way to sum him up. He made it look so easy, but of course there was a lot of hard work that went into that careless grace.
—John
Nesta coletânea de contos de John Updike, a questão da confiança, quase sempre traída, está subjacente a todas as histórias. Um livro de leitura rápida, muito bem escrito.“Harold não tinha tido uma namorada durante muitos anos e foi obrigado a reaprender a delicada mistura de condescendência e de provocação que é o namoro”.“Quando comecei a ir para a cama com Karen (…) tive dificuldade em aceitar o fervor excitado que ela punha em atos que com Mónica possuíam um certo peso solene, como de qualquer coisa concedida. Mónica confessou-me uma vez que se retraía no ato sexual, com medo de perder a sua identidade; Karen parecia procurar a sua com impaciência”.“ O beijo de Pat, tão inesperadamente apaixonado, sentia-o agora como um estorvo visível na sua boca. Que quisera ela dizer com isso? Que tinha esquecido quem ele era e como a havia traído? Ou que o via agora simplesmente como um bocado do passado e se agarrara a ele um momento como todos nós nos desejamos agarrar ao que já passou?”
—Ana
Tired of the issues of suburbia, huh? Is this a reflection of your dissatisfaction with your role as a "room relative" in Lauren's class? Can't get much more suburban than that!
—Kevin p.
