Museums and Women and Other Stories
First edition cover
AuthorJohn Updike
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort Stories
PublisherAlfred A. Knopf
Publication date
1972
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages282
ISBN0-394-48173-9
OCLC722247

Museums and Women and Other Stories is a collection of 25 works of short fiction by John Updike, first appearing individually in literary journals. The stories were collected by Alfred A. Knopf in 1972.[1][2][3]

Stories

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The stories in Museums and Women first appeared in The New Yorker, unless otherwise noted.[4][5]

Reception

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"Updike’s most tender reverence is reserved for women’s bodies. The elegant style with which he describes female anatomy often becomes overwrought, as his descriptions do generally. But it always conveys wonder. Even in the many explicit accounts of sexual activity, some of them ludicrous and even perhaps pornographic, there is an awe for the physical aspect of women. This form of adoration is far from a consideration of women’s needs…but it is a kind of naive appreciation."—Literary critic Mary Allen from The Necessary Blankness: Women in Major American Fiction of the Sixties. (1976)[6]

As to the critical response to Museums and Women, appraisals of the collection were few "perhaps because reviewers felt there was not really much to say" according to literary critic William R. Macnaughton.[7] The collection is composed of 25 tales, of which 10 are sketches and fables, and 5 more that continue the To Far to Go: The Maples Stories saga of Joan and Richard Maple.[8]

Literary critic Tony Tanner writing in The New York Times Book Review offers a mixed appraisal of the collection. Tanner notes:

Updike’s narrator writes with sympathy and insight about women. But despite his sensitivity, he fails to persuade me of the genuineness of his experience of love...I find it hard to think of any character in Updike’s work who is convincing in his or her inner plenitude."[9]

Tanner adds that "most of the stories are extremely readable, not one of them without some moments of dazzling minute observation…some abrupt accuracy about the harassments and consolations of day-to-day living…The thought occurred to me that Updike may be a better short-story writer than he is a novelist…"[10]

Literary critic Robert M Luscher reports that Updike's skill at developing his characters has not diminished in this volume, but rather chronicles a decline in the circumstances of his protagonists.:[11]

[It] is Updike’s characters…that have lost the energy to fuel the push through the doors of memory or the ability to devise plausible harmonies amid maturity’s discord. Their emotional peaks have leveled out, and fatigue is more frequent; numerous characters mention how "tired" they are from struggling to maintain the status quo…[12]

Style and Theme

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Novelist Joyce Carol Oates locates the key thematic elements of the collection in its title:

Museums and Women makes the point explicitly that both "museums" and "women" are mysterious structures which, once entered, once explored, somehow lose their mystery; yet they…attract the artist again and again."[13]

The title story "Museums and Woman" reveals that the narrator's mother introduced him to museums when he was a child, attempting to instill in the boy a sense of his own destiny. Literary critic Mary Allen writes:

The museum with its valuable holdings of the past may be an apt metaphor for the mother with its emphasis on "radiance, antiquity, mystery and duty" Updike makes a specific attempt to define his view of women in general...The narrator's view of his mother however, is contradicted by the woman he chooses for his wife, who does not faintly resemble his mother."[14]

The stories in Museums and Women are narrated by the fictional character William Young, "an Updike alter ego", who offers a "meditative reminiscence" of six women he had accompanied to art museums.[15][16] Literary critic Robert Detwieler writes:

The recounting of his relationships to these six merges with the imagery of four terms he finds evoked by the two key title words—museums and women. It is portentous that the Maple tales conclude Museums and Women, for virtually all of Updike’s fiction written since then stresses the pleasures and agonies of those who love neither wisely nor well. It is, however, short-sighted to conclude, from reading the Museums and Women stories…that "marriage is a relic." The marriage bonds are indeed vulnerable to the extreme [but] they are also as resilient as anything that exists.[17]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Olster, 2006 p. 179 (in Select Bibliography)
  2. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 222: Selected Bibliography.
  3. ^ Carduff, Christopher. 2013. Ref. 1 pp. 910-924
  4. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 222
  5. ^ Carduff, Christopher. 2013. Ref. 1 pp. 910-924
  6. ^ Allen, 1976 p. 69
  7. ^ Macnaughton, 1982 p. 12
  8. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 89: "...14 tales…5 stories featuring the Maples."
  9. ^ Tanner, 1972 p. 73
  10. ^ Tanner, 1972 p. 73: Ellipsis inserted for brevity, meaning unaltered.
  11. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 89
  12. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 89: Ellipsis inserted for brevity
  13. ^ Oates, 1975 p. 58
  14. ^ Allen, 1976 p. 73-74
  15. ^ Detweiler, 1984 p. 140
  16. ^ Luscher, 1993 p. 90: "...narrated by [character] William Young…"
  17. ^ Detweiler, 1984 p. 146: Detweiler borrows the "marriage is a relic" from Donald J. Greiner. And ellipsis inserted for brevity.

Sources

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Selected works of John Updike
Rabbit novels
Eastwick books
Other novels
Short story collections
Poetry collections
Settings and characters
Adaptations
Categories