Items related to Villages
In this wry novel of sentimental education and sexual pursuit, we follow Owen Mackenzie, a representative man of the author's generation, from cradle to grave, and from bed to bed. His life and relationships are shaped by three villages, warm-lit communities that keep the darkness at bay from within and without. In Willow, Pennsylvania, the young Owen is transfixed by his first glimpses of female beauty. In Middle Falls, Connecticut, he marries, becomes a first-wave computer programmer, and discovers the very grownup pleasures of serial adultery. Finally, married for a second time, he retires with his memories, illusions, and fantasies to the somewhat geriatric community of Haskells Crossing, Massachusetts. John Updike turns Owen's personal odyssey into a radiant, sensual fable of the seasons of a man's life--and of the getting of wisdom in America.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"Updike in top form, every sentence a marvel of insight and imagery . . . wise and elegiac and warmed by the sense of reconciliation with the most vexatious elements of Updike's fiction: women and sex."--People (Critic's Choice) "As powerful as anything to be found in Updike . . . full of pointed, humorous and occasionally acerbic remarks on contemporary life."--Chicago Tribune
"Eloquent, erotic . . . a gorgeous geography of desire."--O: The Oprah Magazine
About the Author:
"Eloquent, erotic . . . a gorgeous geography of desire."--O: The Oprah Magazine
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.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherRandom House Trade
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0345477316
- ISBN 13 9780345477316
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
- Rating
Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
Villages: A Novel by Updike, John [Paperback ]
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 10
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780345477316
Buy New
£ 11.14
Convert currency
Seller Image
Villages
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Softcover
Quantity: 5
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 3403475-n
Buy New
£ 9.78
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages Format: Paperback
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0345477316
Buy New
£ 8.87
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages (Paperback)
Published by
Random House USA Inc, New York
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. A delightful, witty, passionate novel that follows its hero from the Depression era to the early twenty-first centuryfrom a master of American letters and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the acclaimed Rabbit series.John Updikes twenty-first novel, a bildungsroman, follows Owen Mackenzie from his birth in the semi-rural Pennsylvania town of Willow to his retirement in the rather geriatric community of Haskells Crossing, Massachusetts.In between these two settlements comes Middle Falls, Connecticut, where Owen, an early computer programmer, founds with a partner, Ed Mervine, the successful firm of E-O Data, which is housed in an old gun factory on the Chunkaunkabaug River. Owens education (Bildung) is not merely technical but liberal, as the humanity of his three villages, especially that of their female citizens, works to disengage him from his youthful innocence. As a child he early felt an abyss of calamity beneath the sunny surface quotidian, yet also had a dreamlike sense of leading a charmed existence.The women of his life, including his wives, Phyllis and Julia, shed what light they can. At one juncture he reflects, How lovely she is, naked in the dark! How little men deserve the beauty and mercy of women! His life as a sexual being merges with the communal shelter of villages: A village is woven of secrets, of truths better left unstated, of houses with less window than opaque wall.This delightful, witty, passionate novel runs from the Depression era to the early twenty-first century. This novel follows Owen Mackenzie, a computer programmer, from his boyhood in rural Pennsylvania to his final years in a New England geriatric community. Along the way, Mackenzie becomes entangled with numerous women, two of whom become his wives. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780345477316
Buy New
£ 15.28
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages
Published by
Random House
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Softcover
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. pp. 336. Seller Inventory # 26729817
Buy New
£ 13.46
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages: A Novel
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0345477316
Buy New
£ 16.97
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages: A Novel
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0345477316xvz189zvxnew
Buy New
£ 21.29
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages: A Novel
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0345477316
Buy New
£ 18.16
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages: A Novel
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Softcover
Quantity: 15
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # V9780345477316
Buy New
£ 16.79
Convert currency
Stock Image
Villages: A Novel
Published by
Random House Trade Paperbacks
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0345477316
ISBN 13: 9780345477316
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0345477316
Buy New
£ 23.49
Convert currency