John Updike, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, has long been recognized as a great and prolific American novelist. Before his death in 2009, he wrote dozens of novels and short-story collections. His progression as a writer can be analyzed and appreciated by reading my favorite of his collections, “The Maples Stories.”Updike introduced the characters Joan and Richard Maple in a 1956 edition of The New Yorker. Updike was only 24 years old at the time, and while he was already an accomplished writer, the language in “Snowing in Greenwich Village” is more stilted and pretentious than in his later “Maples” works.Nevertheless, this initial story is powerful. It highlights the newly married couple as they entertain a guest in their apartment. The internal and external viewpoints Updike gives of Joan and Richard made me want to know more about them. Thankfully, there is ample opportunity to do so with the remainder of the collection— a fascinating chronological set of stories that spans decades.Not only does the chronological nature of the collection allow readers to follow Joan and Richard as they parent four children and experience hardships in their marriage, it also allows students of Updike to follow the author through various changes in voice and tone.In “Your Lover Just Called,” published more than 10 years after the first Maple story, Updike uses biting dialogue to profile the couple. This is their exchange after Richard sees Joan kissing a mutual friend who’s going through a divorce:“The divorce is her idea, obviously. He’s a lost soul. I feel sorry for him.”“Yes, I saw that you do. You were like the Red Cross at Verdun.”“What I’d like to know is, why are you so pleased?”“Pleased? I’m annihilated.”“You’re delighted. Look at your smile in the mirror.”It’s no secret Joan and Richard’s marriage mirrors that of Updike and his first wife on many levels. Perhaps it’s the autobiographical nature of the stories that make them addictive.Whatever the reason, by the time I reached the 18th and final story in the collection, I was hooked. The couple have been divorced for years in “Grandparenting,” and both are remarried. Brought together by the birth of their first grandchild, it’s clear Updike chose to link the couple forever.—Miller welcomes book suggestions. Read her blog at www.anitalaydonmiller.blogspot.com or email anita.l.miller@att.net.

Photo by