John Updike died of cancer on January 27 of this year. He was a most distinguished American author, having won just about all the literary prizes available. He wrote fiction, verse, essays, and criticism.

The Widows of Eastwick, published in 2008 in a sort of sequel to the 1984 The Witches of Eastwick. You do not have to have read the first book to enjoy this one, but it is interesting to compare the two. Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie are again the main characters. In the earlier book, they were self-centered women using a form of black magic, even eventually committing murder.

Now they are all widows, having left Eastwick those decades ago, conjured husbands, and gone separate ways. Alexandra is the oldest of the three. Her husband Jim has been very satisfactory, but when he dies, she finds herself not knowing quite what to do. She tries travel, but doesn't like the "feigned camaraderie of an organized group tour." While she is still contemplating the future, she receives a letter from Jane, suggesting a reunion.

Jane is comfortably wealthy, though burdened with an aged mother-in-law. "That's where you feel old, I find. The technology. I can't do computers and hate dialing 10 digits." She continues to insist that she and Alexandra travel together, and they go to Egypt. While traveling on the Nile, Jane murmurs a curse, killing a bat (for no good reason,) and we and Alexandra are reminded of their old habits.

Jane is in touch with Sukie, and the three of them go to China. Alexandra is still not sure that she might not rather be at home, but -- "in their company she felt more powerful, more deeply appreciated, more positively enjoyed." She agrees to go with them back to Eastwick the following summer. The reader, of course, is waiting anxiously to see if they will practice magic again in their old haunts.

It is not the magic, however, used by them or by an enemy they didn't know before, that is compelling. It is Updike's skill at creating ordinary women, frightened of old age and troubled by memory and guilt and repentance.

Updike also wrote, among others, the "Rabbit" novels. He liked to let his characters grow and change, sometimes over more than one story. He wrote most often about realistic people set in small town and urban settings. He was interested in depicting the American middle class, and the public and the critics responded favorably to his work. The details he supplied helped us picture and enjoy his creations. "His level gray eyes had the glint of a gun from within the shade of his wide-brimmed hat, its crown darkened where his thumb and fingers pinched it."

The Widows of Eastwick and many other novels of John Updike are available at the Mary Willis Library.