The short stories are in the classic Updike mode, set mostly in exurbia of the sixties, in what seemed then a revolutionary time that "taught us the high moral value of copulation, and we were slow to give up on an activity so pleasureable and healthy". The stories are reflective and take on a particular poignancy; memory is selective and every detail is relished.

Among these dozen gems are two masterpieces, both of which appeared in the New Yorker and were much talked about and greatly admired. One is about the narrator's father, about an only son's fear that somehow his father would fall from grace, would lose his job as a revered high school math teacher, and that the family would be ruined -- a very real fear at the height of the depression. The other is a haunting story called The Cats, about a son's return to the Pennsylvania farm of his youth after his mother's death only to find the place literally overrun with the stray cats that his mother had fed, and the moral dilemma this poses.

The second half of the book is a wonderful novella-length sequel to his four Rabbit novels. We find out what happened to Janice (she married again), to son Nelson (a social worker temporarily separated from his wife and children), and we meet the illegitimate daughter, the fruit of Rabbit's first dalliance, who inserts herself into the Angstrom clan. All the strands are artfully woven together and Rabbit is finally laid to rest. The setting is, as before, the area of Brewer, Pennsylvania; the time, the last months of 1999. A brilliant Updikeanfinale to a saga that we hate to let go of.