Rating: 
Summary: Sorry (United) state of affairs
Review: 'Couples' is a large, brooding and memorably elegaic attempt to unveil the clandestine affairs of the surburban post-war intelligensia. This is the fruition of a quite collosal intellect at work with Updikes passages of lyrical grandour and beautifly shaded expressions of barely recordable emotions bambarding the reader in squadrons. The alarming promiscuity of Piet Hanama and his assoiciates in a New England small town no longer shocks in terms of sexual explicitness but rather the depiction of the ghastly sythentic 'social' occasions and the transparancy of the ostensible friendships displayed should send shivers through anyone themselves caught up in the 'badminton and bridge' set. The accuracy of the personalitys Updike creates is proven through the absolute lack of sympathy or affection that any of them provoke in the reader. The endless self anaylsis and loqaucious navel gazing of the males and females in the novel can be hard to stomach at times and this could have been diluted perhaps if Updike had reduced his cast slightly. There are too many bit-part narcissits languidly sniffing around the perhipery of the plot and not enough emphsis on the pantomime-esque rogue Freddie Thorne who, whilst the most fascinating character is by far the most one-dimensional.The sheer length and convaluted nature of the narrative will limit the appeal of this book to the educated dinner party set it so desparingly describes but this book deserves kudos for it's attempt to capture the selfishness, ennui and cloying dissatifaction at the crux of the American Dream.
Rating: 
Summary: sex in the suburbs
Review: a journey thru sex in the suburbs. updike has the gift to present his reader with a cynical side of life
Rating:
Summary: Not His Best
Review: Having read many of Updike's books (he's my fav. author), I rate Couples in the middle. The book is full of subtle symbolism and not-so-subtle symbolism, and has the Updike trademark of colorful imagery. It is a fair treatment of the complexities of infidelity.However, I found reading it a bit of a chore. If you want to read Updike, this one should not be your first. I'd recommend the second Rabbit book, Rabbit Redux.
Rating: 
Summary: i reviewed the book on couples it was great
Review: How lovers commit adultery and why one another
wants to kill eachother.what to expect
Rating:
Summary: No longer raunchy, just memorable
Review: I have to admit, much like porn, I bought the book based on its cover. "Seductive" Savagely graphic" etc. These are the things that make me spend 13 bucks. However, what was considered lewd and graphic back in the '60's is downright quaint today. What we're left with, however, is another Updike masterpiece. No one knows the suburbs like Updike and he once again demonstrates his mastery over this terrain here. Despite the Biblical overtones of the ending (which seemed forced and completely out of the flow of this otherwise seemless novel) this is a book that you fall into like a comfy couch. It takes a while to keep the characters straight and the fact that each of them takes up with another's spouse only complicates matters further but once you become familiar with everyone the sparks almost crackle off the page. There's a reason this guy's so famous.
Rating:
Summary: A Couple Things
Review: I might have to ammend my review later, because I only finished the book a few hours ago and I'm still trying to take it all in. I might ramble on a little bit, fumbling towards the truth as Foxy more or less says in her last letter to Piet. I'll also admit that I could never finish "Rabbit, Run" because I couldn't stand Rabbit and the miserable world he created for himself.
And in large part the many couples of "Couples" also create their own miserable situations, although I'm still trying to figure out WHY. I suppose a lot of it was wanting to try something new because they were bored with their current mate and wanted a change of scenery or a new adventure. The whole book revolves around the games these couples play as they dance and fornicate their way through the early 60s in suburban Tarbox.
There were far too many couples in this book, so that I could never remember who was married to who and who was sleeping with who and who had slept with who. The saving grace of John Irving's similar "158-Pound Marriage" is there were only two couples to deal with, which was not only easier to keep track of, but I bet it was probably more realistic than thinking half the town is prowling around having affairs. I'm not sure if the statistics would back me up on that or not, but somehow I doubt infidelity was THAT rampant. I like to think the author exaggerated the problem a bit for the sake of making his point about marriage and sex.
Another reviewer mentioned the "hard-won sympathy" for Piet, but I never saw him as sympathetic once he got involved with Foxy. I'm being a prude again here, but anyone who has an affair with a woman who's seven months pregnant will NEVER be sympathetic in my view, no matter how the author tries to redeem him or come up with reasons, although I don't think Updike really had many reasons for why Piet needed to have every woman he ever met. His parents died, he's afraid of death, his wife is untouchable seem to be the justifications, but none would excuse Piet's insatiable appetite for infidelity.
Anyway, in having read a good chunk of "Rabbit, Run" and "Couples", Updike seems to have a great talent at creating characters who may be dull or unpleasant but they are real and multi-faceted. Now days most of the women would be minivan-driving "soccer moms", although in modern times they would probably also have real jobs, which no one except Angela really seemed to have in the book. Tarbox really isn't all that different from all the subdivision communities in America today, so the book is still applicable I think.
I could have done without the stream-of-consciousness writing that cropped up in many scenes involving Piet--it just gave the narrative a sort of choppy, manic feel at times. I liked the descriptions and unlike other reviewers, I didn't feel it was excessive. The sex talk by today's standards isn't too graphic, but it's still not something you probably want your kids reading. The writing style is challenging, but if you can muddle through you'll feel better about yourself.
When all's said and done, this is not the kind of book I could "enjoy" and I doubt you could either. Updike's dreary view of humanity is not what anyone can find very uplifting or motivational. But it was an intriguing, enlightening book, the kind that made me ask myself questions about the world. That made it worth the read for me, even if I haven't answered all those questions to my satisfaction yet.
If you're ready to accept a challenge, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: What Can I Say
Review: I think this book has benn reviewed enough and there is nothing that I can say that has not already been said.
An wonderfully romantic book that explores our right to not be fully discovered until someone else discoveres you. The tales of society trying to please everyone else first and yourself in secret.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest book ever about the sexual revolution
Review: Reviled in its time as a great author's descent into tabloid, Peyton Place populism, Couples has proven itself to be one of Updike's most memorable. A devastating, erotic, wonderful examination of the underbelly of love and the American dream, it is also a Last Exit to Brooklyn of the suburbs.
Rating:
Summary: Sex
Review: The original novel about wifeswapping at the onset of the sexual revolution. Entertaining and erotic.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This book is great! 1 Long and difficult, but Updikes writing style is amazing and potrays lots of detailed sex between the protagonist Piet and all of his love affairs... many of the characters are relatable, andif you have ever lived in suburbia, you will relate with the fakeness that surrounds everyone. Also, even though I had to read this book for a class, I did thouiroughly enjoy it.
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