The twenty-two stories in John Updike's eleventh collection explore life beyond middle age and find it to have its own wonders, from omniscient golf caddies to prescient sexual rumours, from losing mothers to gaining grandchildren. As death approaches, some of the ageing heroes find that life takes on a translucence and magical fragility, others that travel heightens perceptions and tensions. As is usual in Updike's fiction, spouses quarrel, lovers part, children are brave and houses have the presence of personalities. His is a world where innocence stubbornly persists, and fresh beginnings almost outnumber losses.
- ISBN10 024113501X
- ISBN13 9780241135013
- Publish Date 2 February 1995 (first published May 1987)
- Publish Status Unknown
- Out of Print 17 October 2008
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint Hamish Hamilton Ltd
- Edition New edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English