Updike stories

Reading some John Updike while traveling and last night read the beautiful In Football Season first story in old collection The Music School. Fans of Updike who haven't read this story in a long while (me) will enjoy coming back to it in part to see here early and almost encapsulated version of material he made continued use of right through stories and memoirs late in his life. This story seemingly simply a memory - always drawing from his ample childhood experiences so remarkable and fruitful for him in that they are not dramatic or traumatic the stuff of memoirs today but just deeply etched and perfectly recollected. In this one we see the by now v familiar U material of teenagers walking home from HS football game and the boys pairing off w girls a sensuous good night kiss on doorstep and the U walking on to house where his father sits w two other men counting the coins collected from ticket booth drinking beer and smoke and he watches slightly aside - after feeling so young and free and manly he now senses he is not yet of his father's world and now recalling this moment from about 15 years later beset by sense of loss and death. Don't we all have these moments and these fears? I like most aspiring writers have tried to capture this feeling and have even written about the ha football game from the view outside of the stadium - such a simple matter yet so elusive - as apt a definition of a great short story as know of or can devise.

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