"Villages"

I have been reading the late John Updike's books on and off for years, although more the books of his early and middle writing years than of his later years. However, I just finished listening to the CD of his 2004 novel, "Villages" (Random House; Books on Tape), read by Edward Herrmann, and I enjoyed it very much. Updike's prose is just so good! And listening to a novel on CD forces me to slow down and savor the language. (Sometimes I tend to read too fast). There is also something endearing about Updike, and his main characters (surrogates?), that is hard to resist. This novel is the life story of Owen Mackenzie, who is 70 at the end of the novel; the novel thus encompasses the period from the 1930s to the early 21st century. As Owen's career was in technology, we see the changes wrought during that time period, especially related to computers. But the more essential themes are twofold. First, as the title indicates, Owen organizes his life and world view through the lens of the three "villages" he has lived in: his childhood home in a small town in Pennsylvania; his adult life in Middle Falls, Connecticut, where most of his career took place, and where he raised a family; and his retirement locale with his second wife Julia in Haskells Crossing, Massachusetts. Owen enjoys the feeling of being part of a community; he feels connected, noticed, and cherished in each of these "villages." The second main theme is his lifelong fascination with, love for, and entanglements with women. He loves sex and is often unfaithful to his adored first wife; his sexual encounters and affairs are a major part of the story. But what comes across about this theme is Owen's intense and almost humble appreciation and even awe of women, their strengths, their individuality, and of course their bodies, which he describes in loving detail. These descriptions, curiously, do not come across as erotic as much as loving, amazed, and grateful. Again, this is rather endearing. I will say, though, that by the end of the novel, I was a little tired of the endless and minutely detailed descriptions of the women he was involved with, and of the particulars of their physical characteristics.