The Witches of Eastwick

by Professor John Updike

2.5 of 5 stars 2 ratings • 1 review • 4 shelved
Book cover for The Witches of Eastwick

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [is one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review

Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick—and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche.

“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday

  • ISBN10 0394537653
  • ISBN13 9780394537658
  • Publish Date 1 April 1984
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 13 March 2021
  • Imprint Alfred A. Knopf
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 336
  • Language English