‘The Rescue’ by John Updike

The Rescue by John Updike, 1965

The magic trick:

Highlighting a woman’s perspective

Updike takes us to the ski resorts of New Hampshire today. File this one away in your folder marked “Examples to use when arguing for Updike’s treatment of women in his short stories.” The story features three women. We almost get something like their point of view. Now, true, it’s a point of view that’s filtered almost entirely through how their lives are, relative to men. But, still, it’s their story.

And that’s quite a trick on Updike’s part.

The selection:

“I don’t want to be a sissy,” Caroline said, and these careless words apparently triggered some inward chain of reflection in the other woman, for Alice’s face clouded, and it was certain that she was sleeping with Norman. Everything, every tilt of circumstance, every smothered swell and deliberate contradiction, confirmed it, even the girl’s very name, Smith – a nothing name, a prostitute’s alias. Her hazel eyes, careful in the glare of the snow, flickeringly searched Caroline’s and her expressive mouth froze, it seemed, on the verge of a crucial question.

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