"Pigeon Feathers" by John Updike (1963)

Just as background in mathematics makes a better scientist and background in ballet makes a better ballroom dancer, the skill of writing poetry helps one build precise verse. Updike's verse has the timing, phrasing, and parsimony of good poetry. The quality of his verse, however, is not always matched by the quality of the content. The disparate stories are uneven and overall inferior to Updike's novel "Marry Me," perhaps, because the conception of a story is often motivated by money, or because Updike the author of these stories is a less experienced writer than the Updike of "Marry Me."

Some stories in the collection are not drawings in their own right, but studies for a painting. Yet what makes each story readable is Updike's respect for his characters. Also, he never sentimentalises; instead, he lets actions, however minor, speak.

"A&P" is a story about a young man's tentative discovery of who he is, about his being true to this discovery in spite of the lack of full recognition thereof.

"In Pigeon Feathers," a boy and a father both confess to being afraid of dying; a more accurate description of their fear is that of not having lived. City life is either a distraction or an escape from that condition. Religion is a distraction by means of an imaginary escape.

"Home" suggests two kinds of people who live in the country-side: women who like land, and men who like people, dislike land, and are brought into the country-side by women. "His mother had been born in the county, on a farm, and felt involved with the land but estranged from its people." "His father had come from the centre of Baltimore, and groped after people, but saw no comfort in land."