Couples

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Couples (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)

Couples created quite a stir when it was published because of its graphic and emancipated treatment of adultery. It was on the best-seller lists for most of a year, and it led to favorable treatments of the author by Time and Life magazines. Despite the book's apparent sensationalism, the novel exhibits Updike's serious intent to explore the moral and spiritual consequences of a post-Christian world; the novel asks the question “After Christianity, what?” To Updike, the novel is “about sex as the emergent religion, as the only thing left.” Human sexuality...

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• Couples (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
• Couples (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
• Couples (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

See Also:

• John Updike (Cyclopedia of World Authors)
• John Updike (Poetry)
• John Updike (Short Fiction)
• John Updike (Long Fiction)
• John Updike (Identities and Issues)
• John Updike (Sixties in America)