Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingWife-Wooing
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThe Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming a luminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.
This second story from the collection finds the Maples seven years—and three children—into their marriage. Despite the effects of time, Richard is still very much in love with, and sexually attracted to, his wife. But the complexities of Joan still elude him.
John Updike (1932–2009) was the author of more than sixty books, including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. His novels have been honored with two Pulitzer Prize Awards, the National Book Award, and the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hugging the Shore, a collection of essays and reviews, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
Peter Van Norden has been acting on stage, film, and television for over thirty years. He has appeared on Broadway, off Broadway, and with most of the regional reps across the country. His film and television credits include roles in Police Academy 2 and The Accused (opposite Jodie Foster), as well as the role of Ralph Brentner in Stephen King’s eight-hour miniseries The Stand. He currently lives in Los Angeles.
Reviews
“The stories are full of striking passages…and Updike’s rich prose, his rhythmic, acute, fertile, and, at times, even somewhat glutting use of language.”
Expand reviews