The Maples Stories

Jul 17, 2025 3:17 AM

Author:John Updike

The Maples Stories

In 1956 John Updike wrote a short story about newly-weds Joan and Richard Maple. Over the next two decades he returned to this couple again and again, tracking their years together as they raise children and deal with the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement. Gathered here for the first time in hardcover - and with the addition of a later story, 'Grandparenting', that shows us the Maples after their divorce - THE MAPLES STORIES offers a nuanced portrait of two deeply flawed but moving characters and their entwined lives.

'Though the Maples stories trace the decline and fall of a marriage, they also illumine a history in many ways happy, of growing children and a million mundane moments shared. That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing really succeeds. The moral of these stories is that all blessings are mixed.'

- From the Foreword by John Updike

Reviews

Perfect for the beach

—— Bella

Fun summer read

—— Choice

A fun helping of chick-lit

—— OK!

Funny and heartwarming

—— Newmarket Journal

I can see this being carried in many a beach bag because fans simply adore her humorous, lively and character-driven stories. They will certainly warm to Anna

—— Peterborough Evening Telegraph

The plot is terrific and the pace fast and furious...A terrific story told by a master storyteller

—— Historical Novels Review

Grimly, intelligently comic as if written by an Asian Joseph Heller

—— Daily Telegraph

If this rich stew of disparate ingredients puts you in mind of Salman Rushdie, you wouldn't be far from the truth. His work, along with that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Joseph Heller, is a low-key but persistent influence

—— Sunday Times

An exciting, accomplished new literary voice

—— Irish Times

A very funny satire-cum-thriller

—— Sally Cousins , Sunday Telegraph Seven

Somewhere in mid-air between Waugh and Rushdie (with an shade of Catch 22 hovering near by) this tremendous novel makes a tragicomic weather all its own

—— Boyd Tonkin , The Independent

Justly Booker longlisted last year, this debut is a dazzling one-off

—— Hermione Eyre , The Observer

Provocative and comic debut.

—— The Times

A true touch of originality ... showcases a promising new talent.

—— Colin Waters , Sunday Herald

Dry, droll and insightful

—— The Independent

Bodice-ripping romp through the West

—— Times

Missy by Strong and memorable female characters throughout this enjoyable novel

—— http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

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