The Lucid Eye In Silver Town by John Updike, 1964
The magic trick:
A four-way mirror presentation of the father character
Published in 1964, though I gather this was written in 1956 and rejected by The New Yorker. Not surprising to me. It seems like fairly immature Updike. I can’t quite place why.
Anyway, it’s the story of an eighth-grade Updike stand-in. He’s going with his father to New York City for the first time to visit his uncle. He’s brash and obnoxious and a know-it-all and a huge whiny baby. Fun hang.
I did enjoy the way his father’s character was written. This is very much a father-son story. It’s a dual impression being made every time he opens his mouth. The reader sees how the son views him, and we also interpret his words and actions from our own (probably more mature) perspective. So there are always two tracks going on at the same time. And actually – we also are led to infer what the uncle character thinks, along with a little bit of imagining what the mother character probably thinks too.
So, really, it’s a four-way mirror on the father in this story.
And that’s quite a trick on Updike’s part.
The selection:
“Hold it,” my father said. “Let’s wait in here.”
“Won’t that look rude?”
“No. It’s what Quin wants.”
“Now Daddy, don’t be ridiculous. He’ll think we’ve died in here.”
“No he won’t, not my brother. He’s working some deal. He doesn’t want to be bothered. I know how my brother works: he got us in here so we’d stay in here.”
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