When you're reading a book while riding a bus and miss not one, not two, but three of your stops because you're too engrossed in the book, then you have to admit to yourself it's a pretty good book,even if you can't stand either one of the two main characters. ( )

Stunning. One of the early chapters - "Wife Wooing" provided the feeling I got when reading Ulysses or Faulkner. That feeling of needing to sit up straighter and to pay more attention. Especially in Wife Wooing, the alliteration, the word selection, the sentence construction were extraordinary. I found my self shaking may head in admiration. Later, I was really put off by "Marching Through Boston" - it was just downright racist. I could have accepted - maybe - an inflection, an allusion but this went on and on and was just not funny, or enlightening. That was about the time I began to think, "wow, this guy is really a dick" and was unable to determine whether I was felling that entirely about Richard the main character or about Updike. It came back around over the next few chapters and I suppose some of that - for me- was the familiarity with divorce and separation and the way in which it was captured. Astute, in a word. This was a rewarding experience and I believe it'll be a while before anything else measures up. ( )

A pretty amazing collection of stories. Updike created the Maples in 1956 and periodically updated the reader about their lives over twenty-three years. There is a polished brashness to the writing which seems to counter the happy married life we come to expect from couples in the period. The Maples are no Rob and Laura Petrie but they trudge along and make the best or suffer through it trying to numb their way at times. Enjoyable, but in sometimes a sad or angry way.

Read strictly for recreation ( )

The Maple Stories is a collection of John Updike's earlier stories. Though stories they are related, evolve chronologically and read like a novel.A "novel" of manners we follow the life of Joan and Richard Maple from marriage and four children through divorce and remarriage. I can't say the stories break new ground but they are very well written and definitely worth a detour. ( )

The book was sad. I never read any of Updike's works before so I'm not sure what I was expecting but I was surprised by the content and his style of writing. I expected someone more sombre I guess and I'm not quite sure why. I enjoyed his writing. He does like long sentences and they take surprising turns at times. I was entertained and challenged. The content like I said is sad, it's about the demise of a marriage. I loved a few chapters - the one where he's in love with his wife shortly after they're married with kids, the one where they are selling their house and he is reminiscing in the empty house and the one where they break the news to their kids. I didn't like the one on Grandparents, it felt uncomfortable, un-real or perhaps I just could not accept it. The couple belonged together or you fall in love with their flawed selves enough that you want them to be together and that is perhaps what makes Updike such a good writer. ( )