| THER~; IS a superstition that you shouldenter and leave a house by the same door;thus John Nordholm, the alternately, shyand brash hero of the first story in thiscollection, is the narrator of the last. Yetthere is also a sense in which all of thesesixteen short stories knock at the same door-a door that in "Dentistry and l)oubt"swings open and that in "Toward Evening"remains shut. The characters are polite,nervous, sporadically talkative, and reluc-tant to look at one anoth cr, as if life-orat least youth, for they are all young-is adisconfforting wait in an anteroom of theabsolute. Mr. Updike s world is a spiritualworld where thoughts are judged moreharshly than deeds and our apprehension,or misapprehension, of other human beingsis the principal engine of suspense. Themajority of the stories portray encountersbetween strangers and their unexpectedeffects, which can be as concrete as aroom full of flowers or a bottle of wine,or as intangible as a miracle or a dream. |
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