Museums and Women and Other Stories
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,_Book_cover_art.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | John Updike |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story collection |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 1972 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 282 |
| ISBN | 0-394-48173-9 |
| OCLC | 722247 |
Museums and Women and Other Stories is a collection of 25 works of short fiction by John Updike, first appearing individually in literary journals. The stories were collected by Alfred A. Knopf in 1972.[1][2][3]
The stories in Museums and Women first appeared in The New Yorker, unless otherwise noted.[4][5]
- "Museums and Women" (November 18, 1967)
- "The Hillies" (December 20, 1969)
- "The Deacon" (February 21, 1970)
- "I Will Not Let Thee Go, Except Thou Bless Me" (October 11, 1969)
- "The Corner" (May 24, 1969)
- "The Witnesses" (August 13, 1966)
- "Solitaire" (January 22, 1972)
- "The Orphaned Swimming Pool" (June 27, 1970)
- "When Everyone Was Pregnant" (Audience, November–December 1971)
- "Man and Daughter in the Cold" (March 9, 1968)
- "During the Jurassic" (The Transatlantic Review, Summer 1966)
- "I Am Dying, Egypt, Dying" (Playboy, September 1969)
- "The Carol Sing" (December 19, 1970)
- "Plumbing" (February 20, 1971)
- "The Sea's Green Sameness" (New World Writing, Fall 1960)
- "The Pro" (September 17, 1966)
- "The Slump" (Esquire, July 1968)
- "Under the Microscope" (The Transatlantic Review, Spring 1968)
- "The Day of the Dying Rabbit" (August 30, 1969)
- "Cemeteries" (The Transatlantic Review, Summer 1969)
- "One of My Generation" (November 15, 1969)
- "The Baluchitherium" (August 14, 1971)
- "The Invention of the Horse Collar" (The Transatlantic Review, Spring-Summer 1972)
- "Jesus on Honshu" (December 25, 1971)
- "God Speaks" (Esquire, September 1965 [titled "Deus Dixit"])
Reception
"Updike's most tender reverence is reserved for women's bodies. The elegant style with which he describes female anatomy often becomes overwrought, as his descriptions do generally. But it always conveys wonder. Even in the many explicit accounts of sexual activity, some of them ludicrous and even perhaps pornographic, there is an awe for the physical aspect of women. This form of adoration is far from a consideration of women's needs...but it is a kind of naive appreciation."—Literary critic Mary Allen from The Necessary Blankness: Women in Major American Fiction of the Sixties. (1976)[6]
As to the critical response to Museums and Women, appraisals of the collection were few "perhaps because reviewers felt there was not really much to say" according to literary critic William R. Macnaughton.[7] The collection is composed of 25 tales, of which 10 are sketches and fables, and 5 more that continue the To Far to Go: The Maples Stories saga of Joan and Richard Maple.[8]
Literary critic Tony Tanner writing in The New York Times Book Review offers a mixed appraisal of the collection. Tanner notes:
Updike's narrator writes with sympathy and insight about women. But despite his sensitivity, he fails to persuade me of the genuineness of his experience of love...I find it hard to think of any character in Updike's work who is convincing in his or her inner plenitude."[9]
Tanner adds that "most of the stories are extremely readable, not one of them without some moments of dazzling minute observation...some abrupt accuracy about the harassments and consolations of day-to-day living...The thought occurred to me that Updike may be a better short-story writer than he is a novelist..."[10]
Literary critic Robert M Luscher reports that Updike's skill at developing his characters has not diminished in this volume, but rather chronicles a decline in the circumstances of his protagonists.:[11]
[It] is Updike's characters...that have lost the energy to fuel the push through the doors of memory or the ability to devise plausible harmonies amid maturity's discord. Their emotional peaks have leveled out, and fatigue is more frequent; numerous characters mention how "tired" they are from struggling to maintain the status quo...[12]