Wife-Wooing

The Maples Stories consists of eighteen classic stories from across John Updike's career, forming a luminous chronicle of the life and times of one marriage in all its rich emotional complexity. In 1956, Updike published the story "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

This second story from the collection finds the Maples seven years—and three children—into their marriage. Despite the effects of time, Richard is still very much in love with, and sexually attracted to, his wife. But the complexities of Joan still elude him.