Relationships and then the complexities
Tulip Chowdhury prances down a street of human emotions
TRUST Me, a collection of short stories by John Updike, is like an assortment of priceless valuables. This book contains one gem after another. The stories have to be savoured one at a time and returned to for more. All most all the twenty-two stories are about white, middleclass men and women caught in turmoil of life, what could be and what could not be and different paradoxes of life. In the opening pages is a story of a betrayal of trust. A child's trust in jumping into the water in the belief that his father will catch him goes awry. The same father as a husband assures his frantic wife of a smooth flight as they travel by air. And yet the journey ends with an emergency landing. The man is confident of himself and his beliefs and yet fate seems to intervene and things go topsy-turvy. When his children are grown up the father trusts them in different aspects of life. But his own trust is breached as his son persuades him to take hashish in a biscuit. Moving on to 'Killing', the reader comes to a tale in which a daughter is forced to make the decision of not putting the terminally ill father on life support. She does so because it is her father's wish. And yet there is in her heart a guilty feeling that she is killing him, that he could have lived much longer if she had forced him onto life support. This terrible feeling of guilt takes away the peace of her soul. Like many human beings she is unsure of herself, she faces a dilemma. Has she done the right thing by listening to her father? Will the people around her accuse her of killing her father? 'Unstuck' comes with the story of a husband stuck in deep snow early in the morning. He had moved to the place with his wife only few days back. A neighbor shouts out something that he fails to understand. But he imagines that she may be making fun of him. He feels foolish as passing people make various remarks. However, at the end the wife turns up and together they are able to move the car. The story focuses on the companionship and love of a husband and wife. The story, 'Learn a Trade', is the tale of a father's earnest request to a son to become a doctor. The son is totally absorbed in making mobile phones in his basement. The man's second wife also tries to help the son with a steady job. However, the son's mother, the protagonist's first wife, is convinced that a person should be allowed to be in the profession that interests him or her. While the protagonist argues with the first wife she tells him that she had allowed him to do what he liked all along. The story seems to shake adults who demand from children what they did not give into life. Midway into the book, 'Death of Distant Friends' comes with reminiscences of friends who have lived for their destined time and left behind memories upon their death. This is like a character analysis of some dead friends, points to ponder about them. For instance, after Miss Merrymount passes away the narrator of the story concludes, "I imagine Miss Merrymount's death, not too many months after this, as a final, serenely flat line on the hospital monitor attached to her. Something sardonic in that flat line too, of unviolated rectitude, of magnificent patience with a world that for over ninety years failed to prove itself other than disappointing." ' The Other' is a tale of two twins. The protagonist Hank is in love with one of them, Priscilla. When they are very much in love and ready to get married Priscilla tells him of her identical twin sister. From then on Hank is obsessed with thoughts of Susan, the other twin. He wonders if physically she is just like his fiancée or may be a little different. He wonders if the other sister's character is like Priscilla too. He is unable to shake off thoughts about Susan and when finally he meets her he finds himself totally engrossed with her. He is surprised at his own feelings for her. The question is, will Susan too have feelings for him? Closely following comes the story, 'Leaf Season', a tale that arouses the reader's feelings of the contentedness of family life. In it Updike allows himself a rare sally in the present tense to give this picture of families who come together on a New England farm for the weekend, a feeling of immediacy that is indeed powerful. The story, 'The Other Woman', leads the reader towards the end of the book and leaves the reader with a sad feeling that all good things must come to end. In this story, Ed suddenly comes upon his wife Carol's extramarital affair. As it happens he is glad to find an excuse to tell his wife that he wants to end the marriage. Lately he has been finding life with Carol a drag. And yet his wife is ready to give up the affair. Still he moves away and his wife continues to have her affair with Jayson. Jayson's wife is in the dark about her husband's affair. Ed continues to caution Carol about Jayson's wife. He had met her and somehow he did not want to hurt her. Ed is surprised at himself for his own sympathy for the other woman. The story reflects upon human emotions caught in different relationships. Among the twenty-two stories in Trust Me, six of them focus on men-women relationships and the complexities that often arise among them. It makes a reader sometimes wonder if Updike could not have gone to other plots, chosen form a wider array of life. However, the stories are thought provoking. Updike throws himself into the voices and hearts of his characters. He has created characters that are so fully realized that the reader feels as though they are well known people and so the short stories linger in the mind. The climax of each story is reached with twists and turns and often takes the reader by surprise. Tulip Chowdhury writes poetry and fiction and is a teacher.
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