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lisahopevierra's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
vikkiwarner's review against another edition
4.0
Inexplicably, I've been really drawn to stories of marital disintegration, preferably those that take place (or at least start) in the 50s. (REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is one of my favorite books ever, so I guess I'm trying to recreate the thrill of reading that for the first time. By the way, the movie is surprisingly tolerable.) Anyway, I loved THE MAPLES STORIES. Updike is (obvs!) lovely in short story form, full of the kind of detailed expression that us average folk internalize constantly but can't untangle enough to put into words. I can't say I LOVE the characters of Richard and Joan Maple and their assorted illicit lovers, but I'm fascinated by the writing itself and of the portrait of a "liberal marriage" in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. A really wonderful experience. Sad we've lost Updike.
scarletohhara's review against another edition
3.0
This book was recommended by a friend, he told me I'd like this if I liked stories where the main protagonists longed for each other. Yes, I like stories where people in love pined, it makes me feel good to know that people are wanted. 😊
This set of stories of a couple spanning over thirty years, through their thicks and thins remind you of all the complexities of running a marriage, without even including the quarrels a couple can have over domestic issues like who'll do the dishes.
In all these stories, told from Richard Maple's perspective, you can feel how much the Maples love each other. In some stories, it hurt to see the language Richard uses for Joan and how they drift apart. In a few, you feel glad for the compatibility they share in spite of being incompatible sexually.
I liked reading this book, the literature, expectedly is rich, the protrayal of both the Maples is well rounded and the reasons for them to be drifted are known without being explicit. Good read.
This set of stories of a couple spanning over thirty years, through their thicks and thins remind you of all the complexities of running a marriage, without even including the quarrels a couple can have over domestic issues like who'll do the dishes.
In all these stories, told from Richard Maple's perspective, you can feel how much the Maples love each other. In some stories, it hurt to see the language Richard uses for Joan and how they drift apart. In a few, you feel glad for the compatibility they share in spite of being incompatible sexually.
I liked reading this book, the literature, expectedly is rich, the protrayal of both the Maples is well rounded and the reasons for them to be drifted are known without being explicit. Good read.
esther_a_'s review against another edition
4.0
An interesting and at times a frustrating story of a couple in a tedious marriage.
It tells of all the struggles they go through over many years.
It wasn’t a particularly happy read but I wanted to keep reading to know how it ended!
It tells of all the struggles they go through over many years.
It wasn’t a particularly happy read but I wanted to keep reading to know how it ended!
greatexpectations77's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked this set of short stories. I think it's my first time reading Updike, and I'm intrigued to try something else. The stories felt very modern - although many things change through history, relationships and their problems really don't change much. Unhappy people are unhappy for similar reasons. I also liked how there seemed to be a kind of equal power dynamic in his marriage. That's more rare for an infidelity story, and particularly one written by a man.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Racism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Bullying, Misogyny, and Racial slurs
Minor: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
gvenezia's review against another edition
4.0
I had been warned about Updike’s narcissism and misogyny. I had been keenly anticipating "the sheer gorgeousness of his descriptive prose.” The Maples Stories proved an exception to the former and a resounding confirmation of the latter.
In the style of Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head, Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, and films like Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Linklater's Before Midnight, Updike explores the conflicted nature of a marriage in decline among two people who still love each other, just not enough in the rights ways at the right times. The brief episodes occur across decades, offering symbolic vignettes of the beginning, breakdown, and negotiation of the Maples’ marriage. While each vignette focuses on the couples' interpersonal conflict, the tone shifts from straightforward realism to poetic descriptivism to Harold Pinter’s “comedy of menace” to dreamy, psychological rumination. What emerges is a surprisingly nuanced, poetic, and—dare I say—humanistic picture of marital senescence.
In the style of Iris Murdoch’s A Severed Head, Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, and films like Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Linklater's Before Midnight, Updike explores the conflicted nature of a marriage in decline among two people who still love each other, just not enough in the rights ways at the right times. The brief episodes occur across decades, offering symbolic vignettes of the beginning, breakdown, and negotiation of the Maples’ marriage. While each vignette focuses on the couples' interpersonal conflict, the tone shifts from straightforward realism to poetic descriptivism to Harold Pinter’s “comedy of menace” to dreamy, psychological rumination. What emerges is a surprisingly nuanced, poetic, and—dare I say—humanistic picture of marital senescence.
gingerholli's review against another edition
4.0
Updike published 18 separate, stand-alone stories about the same character’s ( The Maples) life from 1957 thru 1995. This book is compiled of those stories chronicling Richard and Joan Maple throughout their lives.Love this kind of book.
bjr2022's review against another edition
3.0
Halfway through this series of short stories about Richard and Joan Maple, a couple of educated white, perpetually financially comfortable (with no explanation of where the money came from or what type of work brought it) relationship game players in 1960s suburbia, I'd decided the writing ranged from absolutely wonderful to self-conscious (meaning I could hear Updike tooling words and saying, "Oh, that's good."). And I believed that, constitutionally, I am not the audience for this because I get impatient with this level of privileged, civilized, nonviolent game playing and want to yell, "Why are you wasting your precious time here? You've got education, money, health, and an ability to at least try to find out why you're stuck in this level of nonsense. Do something about it, get out, or quit your belly-aching." And then came the story "Plumber." Everything that the previous stories lacked—soul, wise perspective, and sadness—permeated that story. So I attempted to shut off my inner judge and read on.
I did get bored again during some of the game-playing stories that followed, so I broke my practice of reading only one book at a time and switched off to several other books and then came back. This seemed to expand my tolerance for Updike's chosen people—people with no real-life survival problems or need for jobs they must show up at, people who can move about and live wherever they please, people who have no problem finding sex partners and constantly do, or get depressed, convinced that their problems are their partner or lack of partner, rather than face loneliness and, in that, whatever deep, dark, nasty stuff they are secreting from themselves about themselves. For me, this feels shallow and pointlessly relentless. But I similarly get burned out listening to friends who are perpetually convinced that the answer to their problems is something outside themselves and shun all suggestions that they might look in a different direction, and if they can't, perhaps they are addicted to their misery. I would be a terrible therapist, because, as I said, this may not be my kind of material.
I did get bored again during some of the game-playing stories that followed, so I broke my practice of reading only one book at a time and switched off to several other books and then came back. This seemed to expand my tolerance for Updike's chosen people—people with no real-life survival problems or need for jobs they must show up at, people who can move about and live wherever they please, people who have no problem finding sex partners and constantly do, or get depressed, convinced that their problems are their partner or lack of partner, rather than face loneliness and, in that, whatever deep, dark, nasty stuff they are secreting from themselves about themselves. For me, this feels shallow and pointlessly relentless. But I similarly get burned out listening to friends who are perpetually convinced that the answer to their problems is something outside themselves and shun all suggestions that they might look in a different direction, and if they can't, perhaps they are addicted to their misery. I would be a terrible therapist, because, as I said, this may not be my kind of material.
rennish's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
left_coast_justin's review against another edition
2.0
My favorite scene from the endless succession of Lord of the Rings movies was the long shot of Rivendell, of beautiful architecture clinging to side of a steep valley, waterfalls providing framing. Of course, Rivendell does not exist, except in the heads of Alan Jackson and his CGI team. But it closely resembles some of the more lovely spots on Planet Earth, which is, as far as we know, the most beautiful planet in the universe. Something to remember.
I feel damn grateful to live here, on a planet with green plants, blue oceans, white clouds and (for us, at least) lovely and mostly nonthreatening fauna to brighten our days. I feel even luckier that my job does not involve sweating and mosquitos and leeches and trying not to step in buffalo dung.
So: Why would I want to read about people who have all this, and four healthy kids and the wherewithal to jet off to Rome when the mood strikes them and still can't find any joy in life? (Or, to be fair, have moments of joy popping out of a sea of self-inflicted misery.) Grow up. I made it through the first ten of these stories before the sand-in-my-eyeballs feeling became too strong.
I realize many of my friends find inspiration and solace in reading this, and don't want to spoil the party for people whose tastes are different than mine, but unfortunately this brings back similar, unpleasant memories from reading Rabbit and Bech.
I feel damn grateful to live here, on a planet with green plants, blue oceans, white clouds and (for us, at least) lovely and mostly nonthreatening fauna to brighten our days. I feel even luckier that my job does not involve sweating and mosquitos and leeches and trying not to step in buffalo dung.
So: Why would I want to read about people who have all this, and four healthy kids and the wherewithal to jet off to Rome when the mood strikes them and still can't find any joy in life? (Or, to be fair, have moments of joy popping out of a sea of self-inflicted misery.) Grow up. I made it through the first ten of these stories before the sand-in-my-eyeballs feeling became too strong.
I realize many of my friends find inspiration and solace in reading this, and don't want to spoil the party for people whose tastes are different than mine, but unfortunately this brings back similar, unpleasant memories from reading Rabbit and Bech.