Rating: 
Summary: I didn't like it.
Review: This book is the reason I've read only one John Updike novel. I was so disgusted by the people, the plot, and the very boring and unrelated technical passages that I never read another Updike. I thought the characters were completely unrealistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Unwinding Marriages
Review: This is a slow and intricate tale by Updike, set in the early 1960s, concerning the lives of a group of married couples in the New England town of Tarbox. A new couple, the Whitmans, arrive in Tarbox. Almost immediately, Ken Whitman's pregnant wife, "Foxy", becomes the latest target for the serial adulterer, Piet Hanema.All of the couples are characterised (plagued?) by their infidelity - a complicated network of adulterous relationships are being carried out in a semi-latent way. Updike teases the reader into wondering just how long the characters will cling to the self-delusion which blinds most of them to what is really going on. Each of the characters realises that truth will out, but nonetheless continues to carry on regardless. Updike unpicks their delusions slowly. Of course, "Couples" is an unflattering picture of marriage - people are regarded by their partners (sexual and marital) as mere possessions, and as with all possessions the wanting is everything: the actual possession is bound to be (sooner or later, but mostly sooner) a disappointment compared to the heat of anticipation. Perhaps Updike thought that applied to the adults' view of their children too - however, the effect of the disintegrating marriages on the children is not explored in great detail in "Couples", apart from Piet's children, who show clear signs of being affected. In the end, one is left wondering who exploits whom - it appears to be the men (Piet especially) who exploit the women, but is that really the case? Perhaps the women were being more subtle in their manipulations.
Rating:
Summary: Relationships believable, lifelike
Review: Updike has examined several couples and their relationships with each other, lots of sex and quite risque for being written in the late 1960s! I read a 1968 older copy. Fits in today's world, too! I have to admit that I HATE Piet, although he seems to be the "main" character. I hate how he just jumps from bed to bed to bed, although he finally makes the right decision. The book makes marriage seem like a dead end, although there are so many marriages that ARE like that! Maybe it's a chance to show us how we behave as humans, and maybe we can work on our relationships to keep the fire going and not turn out like his characters! Something else that made me uncomfortable about Piet is his comparing one woman's body parts to another. Makes ya wonder if guys really do that -- of course it would have to be really promiscuous men! But I'm sure men DO compare ex-girlfriends' bodies to new girlfriends. It makes me feel self-conscious. Updike does a good job in the book of pointing out our flaws and greatest fears in relationships, and showing beginnings and endings of relationships. It's a very intellectual study. Great book!
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite book of all time
Review: Updike makes the reader feel like a voyeur privy to the most intimate acts and discussions in the characters' lives. We are transported to the fictional New England town of Tarbox in the 60's and introduced to its suburban inhabitants. They have cocktail parties and play tennis and basketball and raise children and discuss politics, consumerism, gossip, and sex. Yet beyond its Peyton Place scenario, the characters are truly complex, searching for answers, happiness, joy, excitement, anything! Updike brilliantly blends literary prose and imagery with frank situations and absorbing dialogue to create a beautiful American portrait that is extraordinarily accurate. It satisifes the reader's quest for truth, drama, and philisophical stimulation. I have read this novel 3 times and become completely imersed and enthralled each time.
Rating:
Summary: Love thy neighbor
Review: Updike's portrait of the upper middle class in a sleepy Boston suburb in 1968 when people actually had more time than they knew what to do with seems almost as distant and foreign to our overworked present as Fitzgerald's Jazz Age. Set on the eve of the sexual revolution, the novel explores a circle of couples who nearly devour each other out of jealousy, lust and boredom. Yet, the book is not without its tender sides, as Updike manages some hard-won sympathy for his protagonist Piet Hanema, the philandering grown boy of a man who does very bad things for very sad reasons. Richly-detailed with references of the time, COUPLES is a vivid snapshot of America, or at least one slice of it, in 1968.
Rating:
Summary: Early Exploration of the New Morality
Review: When I recently saw the author on a talk show on C-SPAN, he seemed to keep reminiscing about how this 1968 book in particular marked a turning point in his notoriety. Naturally, as one who had already read a ton of Updike (but not this volume), I was intrigued. And I was glad when I finally did read it, for it turns out to be a deliciously lyrical description of how a small group of married people in a coastal town engage in extramarital sex and other forms of innocent seeming behavior and how it all blows up in their faces – quietly, oh so quietly. Updike is testing the ice for us (indeed, one section is named “Thin Ice”). He is helping us judge the New Morality. Will it work, or does it simply displace a more established code of sexual ethics for a while, then vanish? Thirty-five odd years later, the Pill and other forms of birth control have still failed to make marriage obsolete; “wife-swapping” is still not widely practiced. So perhaps Updike was on to something here (namely, that marital fidelity has its place in our scheme of things). The famous graphic sex this novel is supposed to contain? Well, it’s pretty tame stuff these days, but the directness of the sexual descriptions is still delightfully scintillating and refreshing. The best thing about the book though is its characters’ dialog. Updike wouldn’t know how to fill a page with bland verbiage if he tried, and this book is no exception. But unlike the “Rabbit” novels, these characters are always making exotic observations, expressing themselves in a surprising, distinctive, and endlessly entertaining manner. ... Still a terrific read, however (and you may always disagree with me about the ending!).
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