Villages

John Updikes twentyfirst novel a bildungsroman follows its hero Owen Mackenzie from his birth in the semirural Pennsylvania town of Willow to his retirement in ... » 

John Updikes twentyfirst novel a bildungsroman follows its hero Owen Mackenzie from his birth in the semirural 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 E0 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. «