Reader: Various

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975.

One expects the two distinguished actors narrating this collection, Edward Herrmann (an AUDIOFILE Golden Voice) and Jane Alexander,to deliver sterling performances, and they do. Herrmann's voice is strikingly patrician, yet warm; Alexander's is plummy and observant. The unexpected pleasure is that John Updike, in an unactorly way, manages to keep up with them. Even in his early 70s, heis able to modulate his voice to reveal the spaces amid the dialogue of his characters, the quantum chasms that exist between people. He reads with care for his words and characters, but without showing off. The audio collection contains 14 of Updike's most well-known stories, most of which demonstrate the author's abiding faith in the redemption of human affiliation.One of the most wonderful is"Gesturing," a story that turns Boston's John Hancock building, with its shimmering sky-filled façade, into breathtaking metaphor.

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The John Updike Audio Collection 5 CDs (unabridged)