On “Problems And Other Stories”
Posted: July 17th, 2010 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fiction, Updike | View Comments
Some years ago, when a friend showed me John Updike’s short story “Problems,” I loved it. The protagonist has left one woman for another, and he isn’t quite sure he made the right decision. His angst is presented as a series of math story problems. In what’s literally the final analysis, the narrator/test writer tallies up all the hero’s reasons to be happy, and then surprises the reader by asking: “Something is wrong. What is it?”
