Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel, "Rabbit Remembered" (Rabbit Angstrom, #5)

SUMMARY: “A TOUCHING, ELEGIAC COLLECTION OF STORIES about infidelity, about the weight of family, about the dwindling of years, about the heart and other organs. . . . [Updike] works so slowly and carefully that you rarely see the emotional punches coming.”–Newsweek“THESE STORIES SHARE A THEME OF RETROSPECT AND A BITTERSWEET TONE OF FORGIVENESS. . . . Updike, who has found in Rabbit an indispensable, if unlikely, vehicle for his truest insights into the mysterious of manhood, the promise of American life and the operations of divine grace, could no more pass up the opportunity for a further Rabbit report than Rabbit himself could forgo a bowl of macadamia nuts. . . . His observations eddy and swirl into the main stream of his narrative, swelling it with life.”–The New York Times Book Review“ ‘RABBIT REMEMBERED’ IS A THING OF RICH SATISFACTION. . . . IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET . . . Throughout the collection are passages of stylistic certainty and bittersweet intimacy.”–The Boston Sunday Globe“OUTSTANDING WORK . . . We always suspected that Updike would try to pull one more Rabbit out of his hat. Now, some 10 years after the death of everybody’s favorite Updike character, Updike has done just that, and with great success. . . . ‘Rabbit Remembered’ ranks with his best work.”–The Star-Ledger“GLIMMERING . . . SEDUCTIVE . . . JOHN UPDIKE HITS HIS STRIDE”–Entertainment Weekly

the Dozen Short Stories In John Updike's New Collection Revisit Many Of The Locales Of His Fiction: The Small Pennsylvania Town Of Olinger, The Lonely Farm To Which The Hero Moves As An Adolescent, The Exurban New England Of Adult Camaraderie And Sexual Mischief, The New York City Of Artistic Ambition And Taunting Glamour. Love, Including An Old Woman's For Her Cats And A Boy's For His Embattled Father, Exerts Its Spell In All Twelve; The Title Derives From A Story In Which An American Banjo Virtuoso Demonstrates His Licks To An Enthralled Soviet Audience In The Heart Of The Cold War, While Being Hounded By The Epistolary Aftermath Of A One-night Stand In Washington, D.c.

to These Tales Mr. Updike Has Added A Novella-length Sequel To His Quartet Of Novels About Harry "rabbit" Angstrom. Several Old Strands Come At Last Together, And The Dead Man's Survivors Fitfully Entertain His Memory While Pursuing Their Own Happiness Over The Edge Of The Millennium. The Place Is, As Before, The Area Of Brewer, Pennsylvania; The Time, The Last Months Of 1999.

publishers Weekly

harry Rabbit Angstrom Has Been Dead For A Decade In Rabbit Remembered, The Novella That Closes This Latest, Richly Evocative Updike Collection. His Widow, Janice, Is Married To Ronnie Harrison, The Widower Of Thelma, With Whom Harry Had A Long-time Liaison. His Son Nelson's Wife, Pru, Whom Harry Also Briefly Bedded, Has Left Nelson, Who Has Kicked The Coke Habit And Still Lives In The Old Springer House With Janice And Ronnie. The Past Surfaces Unexpectedly When Annabelle Byers, Harry's Illegitimate Daughter, Makes Herself Known To The Family. The Ramifications Of Harry's Legacy Include A Strained Thanksgiving Dinner That Degenerates Into Political Argument And Acrimonious Insults, And A Mordantly Funny Flashback To A Scene In Which Harry's Cremated Remains Were Inadvertently Left On A Closet Shelf In A Comfort Inn. While Updike Explores The Dark Territory Of Bitterness, Resentment And Guilt, He Also Includes His Trademark Ticker-tape Of Current Events (hillary's Candidacy, Etc.), A Typically Muddled Millennium New Year's Eve And A Surprisingly Upbeat Denouement. For Rabbit Fans, This Is A Must-read. In Addition, The 12 Short Stories Collected Here Present A Kaleidoscope Of Updike Settings And Themes. One Element Is Common To Nearly All The Tales: The Protagonist Is A Libidinous Married Man, Ever On The Lookout For Adulterous Adventures. In All Of Them, Nostalgia Is Pierced With Insight And Regret. This Is A Treasury Of Updike's Craft, Each Story A Small Gem. 60,000 First Printing; First Serial To The New Yorker. (nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

In this brilliant late-career collection, John Updike revisits many of the locales of his early fiction: the small-town Pennsylvania of Olinger Stories , the sandstone farmhouse of Of the Farm , the exurban New England of Couples and Marry Me , and Henry Bechs Manhattan of artistic ambition and taunting glamour. To a dozen short stories spanning the American Century, the author has added a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels about Harry Rabbit Angstrom. Several strands of the Rabbit saga come together here as, during the fall and winter holidays of 1999, Harrys survivors fitfully entertain his memory while pursuing their own happiness up to the edge of a new millennium. Love makes Updikes fictional world go roundmarried love, filial love, feathery licks of erotic love, and love for the domestic particulars of Middle American life. Twelve short stories revisit the locales of the author's previous works of fiction and focus on a theme of love, in an anthology that is complemented by a novella-length sequel to his Harry Angstrom series, "Rabbit Remembered." Twelve short stories revisit the locales of the author's previous works of fiction and focus on a theme of love, in an anthology that is complemented by a novella-length sequel, "Rabbit Remembered," to his Harry Angstrom series PIERCE JUNCTION was an isolated New Hampshire town somewhat dignified by the presence of a small liberal-arts college; we survived by clustering together like a ball of snakes in a desert cave.