Wearing Down

Problems and Other Stories By John Updike

Knopf, 260 pp., $10 Here is John Updike’s sixth book of stories, and his first book after the majestic The Coup. At least five out of the 23 stories rivet: “Transaction,” “The Egg Race,” “Separating,” “The Faint,” “Daughter, Last Glimpses Of.” But Updike can be portentous and pretentious in his short-shorts, which, while dealing summarily with the same subjects as his full-bodied stories (separation, divorce, grieved children, living alone, middle age), are built upon arty structures and laced with significant quotes: Plato, Augustine, or Harvey C. Markman’s pamphlet “Fossil Mammals,” published by the Denver Museum of Natural History. The title story includes this in its three and a half pages:

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David Evanier

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Problems and Other Stories By John Updike

Knopf, 260 pp., $10 Here is John Updike’s sixth book of stories, and his first book after the majestic The Coup. At least five out of the 23 stories rivet: “Transaction,” “The Egg Race,” “Separating,” “The Faint,” “Daughter, Last Glimpses Of.” But Updike can be portentous and pretentious in his short-shorts, which, while dealing summarily with the same subjects as his full-bodied stories (separation, divorce, grieved children, living alone, middle age), are built upon arty structures and laced with significant quotes: Plato, Augustine, or Harvey C. Markman’s pamphlet “Fossil Mammals,” published by the Denver Museum of Natural History. The title story includes this in its three and a half pages: