Age and an awareness of approaching death are the prevailing themes of these 22 stories from one of international fiction's surest chroniclers of the mess known as ordinary existence. The work, it is true, does swing between the excellent and the not so good, between New Yorkerish slickness and understated compassion. At his formidable, detailed, tactile best, there are few, with the exception of the late John Cheever, who can challenge his explorations of American middle class life. Throughout the collection ageing sons recall their weak and dying mothers as the vibrant women they once were vague resentments and nostalgia glide through familiar Updike territory. Included is a masterpiece, "A Sandstone Farmhouse". In this flawless testament to the power of memory, a grieving son recalls his dead mother "as a slim young woman ... hurrying to catch the trolley car . . . There was something amazing, something immortal to him in the image of her running."
