The Witches of Eastwick

by John Updike

Overview

“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [is one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review

Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick—and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche.

“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780449912102
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/27/1996
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

John Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal. In 2007 he received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Updike died in January 2009.

Date of Birth:

March 18, 1932

Date of Death:

January 27, 2009

Place of Birth:

Shillington, Pennsylvania

Place of Death:

Beverly Farms, MA

Education:

A.B. in English, Harvard University, 1954; also studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford, England

Read an Excerpt

I
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Witches of Eastwick"
by .
Copyright © 1996 John Updike.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

. . .the premise of The Witches of Eastwick is all in fun. But serious fun. Because even if the witches aren't responsible for what's gone wrong with small-town contemporary New England culture, they offer Mr. Updike a metaphor with which he has brought that culture wittily and radiantly to life. -- The New York Times

Editorial Reviews

John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday

From the Publisher

Alexandra, Sukie, and Jane are real witches who cast spells, cause thunderstorms, transform objects, and are the twentieth-century embodiment of their seventeenth-century New England sisters. When the devilishly charismatic Darryl van Horne moves into Eastwick, the magical mischief and sexual high jinks move into high gear. Kate Reading's narration creates another era, allowing Updike's lush prose and keen sense of satire to sketch the background, which includes the Women's Movement, the Vietnam War, and the suburban hypocrisies of provincial Eastwick. In addition to solidly delivering their preternatural philosophizing, Reading's intelligent narration revels in the women's wicked antics yet manages to take the sting from their more diabolical practices. Listening to Updike's careful craftsmanship is pure pleasure for this listener, but if his writing and Eastwick's witches don't seduce you, Kate Reading's performance will. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2009 - AudioFile