John Updike - The Afterlife and Other Stories

Pros: John Updike really does write beautifully.

Cons: We've seen this before, and what we haven't, we shouldn't.

The Bottom Line: An unfortunately failed collection of stories that have nothing to offer anyone who isn't old, cranky, arrogant, male, and hates women.

Review: Death walks quietly among the paragraphs of John Updike's short story collection, The Afterlife. Fathers, mothers, spouses, and sometimes even protagonists, are drawn, one and all, to death. Updike's bleak collection of short stories, published in 1994 ...