Jim Higgins of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted another consideration of an Updike story yesterday, still fulfilling his declared purpose of “reading and commenting on a story from The Library of America’s John Updike: The Collected Stories each Wednesday until I finish the collection or give up.” One week’s post was “Wife-wooing.” His full intent is explained in an Introduction, and thus far he’s posted musings on:
“A Sense of Shelter”
“Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car”
“The Blessed Man of Boston, My Grandmother’s Thimble, and Fanning Island”
“The Crow in the Woods”
“Lifeguard”
“The Doctor’s Wife”
“A&P”
“The Astronomer”**
“You’ll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You”
“The Sea’s Green Sameness”
“Archangel”
“Home”
“Pigeon Feathers”**
“A Sense of Shelter”
“Dear Alexandros”
“Should Wizard Hit Mommy?”
“Flight”**
“The Persistence of Desire”
“Walter Briggs”
“The Happiest I’ve Been”**
“The Alligators”
“Intercession”
“A Gift from the City”
“Incest”
“A Trillion Feet of Gas”
“The Lucid Eye in Silver Town”
“Sunday Teasing”
“His Finest Hour”**
“Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow?”
“Snowing in Greenwich Village”
“Toward Evening”
“The Kid’s Whistling”
“Dentistry and Doubt”
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth”**
“A Game of Botticelli”
“Friends from Philadelphia”
“Ace in the Hole”
“Unstuck”**
“In Football Season”
“The Indian”
“The Stare”**
“Leaves”
“Solitaire”**
“My Uncle’s Death”
“A Madman”
“Avec la Bebe-sitter”
“Four Sides of One Story”
“The Morning”
“At a Bar in Charlotte Amalie”
Titles with two asterisks he says would make his “hypothetical Best of John Updike collection.” Check back. We’ll add titles as he posts them.
Wife-wooing is one the best story posted by Jim Higgins. I read it and It was very interesting story.
I read about ten of Higgins’ posts. To me they are very descriptive, mostly re-narrating the story, not analytical, without any judgment or recommendation.
After having read the original Updike, i didn’t see much sense in reading Higgins’ recap. And i don’t see much sense in reading Higgins before reading the Updike story.