The Same Door
Encyclopedia
The Same Door is the first collection of John Updike
's short stories in book form. It was published in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf. This was the year after his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair
, was published by the same company, a house he was to remain with for 50 years.
between 1954 and 1959, some in somewhat different form according the title page . The stories appeared in the magazine in the order in which they appear in the book.
, in The New York Times Book Review
, critic Arthur Mizener wrote of Updike's early achievement as a whole:
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
's short stories in book form. It was published in 1959 by Alfred A. Knopf. This was the year after his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair
The Poorhouse Fair
The Poorhouse Fair was the first novel by the American author John Updike.A new edition was published with an introduction by the author. According to the introduction, the new edition contains some changes from the first edition-Plot:The setting is a fictional location in New Jersey...
, was published by the same company, a house he was to remain with for 50 years.
Contents
The book consists of 16 stories, all previously published in The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
between 1954 and 1959, some in somewhat different form according the title page . The stories appeared in the magazine in the order in which they appear in the book.
Themes
The stories are divided into stories with a boyish protagonist set in an unnamed small town or in Olinger, Pennsylvania—the fictional name Updike gave to his hometown—and stories set mostly in New York and other cities, including London, with a young adult man often at the center.Stories
The sixteens stories are:- Friends from Philadelphia
- Ace in the Hole This story prefigures Rabbit, RunRabbit, RunRabbit, Run is a 1960 novel by John Updike.The novel depicts five months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, and his attempts to escape the constraints of his life...
in having an ex-high school basketball star now married with a child. - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth This story has a high school girl in it named Gloria Angstrom, Harry's last name in the Rabbit books. See Updike's reasons for the name Angstrom, "stream of angst".
- Dentistry and Doubt
- The Kid's Whistling
- Toward Evening
- Snowing in Greenwich Village This is the first story to feature a couple called the Maples, Joan and Richard, all stories with them collected in a separate volume called Too Far to GoToo Far to GoToo Far to Go is a collection of short stories by the American author John Updike published in 1979 in conjunction with the showing of a two-hour television movie on the NBC network with Blythe Danner, Michael Moriarty, Kathryn Walker and Glenn Close...
. - Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow?Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow?Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow? is a short story by the novelist John Updike, published in his collection The Same Door in 1959. The title refers to controversies relating to organic and non-organic farming.-Plot summary:...
- Sunday Teasing
- His Finest Hour
- A Trillion Feet of GasA Trillion Feet of Gas"A Trillion Feet of Gas" is a well-known short story by the novelist John Updike, set in the final days of 1956, in New York City, published in his collection The Same Door 1959.-Plot summary:...
- Incest
- A Gift From the City
- Intercession The first story about golf, a lifelong Updike subject.
- The Alligators-- an Olinger story
- The Happiest I've Been-- an Olinger story
Reception
Writing about the author's second collection, Pigeon FeathersPigeon Feathers
Pigeon Feathers is an early collection of short stories by John Updike, published in 1962. It includes the stories Wife-Wooing and A&P, which have both been anthologized.- List of stories :* "Walter Briggs"* "The Persistence of Desire"* "Still Life"...
, in The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, critic Arthur Mizener wrote of Updike's early achievement as a whole:
"John Updike is the most talented writer of his age in America (he is 30 today) and perhaps the most serious. His natural talent is so great that for some time it has been a positive handicap to him — in a small way by exposing him from an early age to a great deal of head-turning praise, in a large way by continually getting out of hand. He has already written five books — two novels ('The Poorhouse Fair' and 'Rabbit, Run'), a volume of verse ('The Carpentered Hen'), and two books of stories ('The Same Door' and this book). Read in chronological order they show clearly the battle that has gone on between his power to dazzle and his serious insight."