European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 out mrp Rico Wai null n l in Updike Aims for a women viewpoint by Mervyn Rothstein new York times in John Updike eyes there is a permanent twinkle he had come to the offices of his publisher Alfred a. Knoll to talk about his new novel. S. Which has just reached the bookstores. Is a departure for Updike an epistolary novel told through idlers written and tapes recorded by Sarah p. Worth a 42 year old Massachusetts woman who leaves her wealthy Home and wealthy physician husband to live on the Arizona ashram of the guru Shii areal Minda Dati i saw this As being a woman novel by a Man he said. And indeed the binding of the Book is Pink. It really Sof i of Rose i d like to think but ii looks pretty Pink Lomo a feminine hop club Iresh  the 55-year-old Updike Winsell seems a Little grayer and old or Bui still there is that twinkle. Ii was a sincere attempt to write about a woman on the move he said and maybe a somewhat satisfy those women who feel Hal my women Are never on the move that they re always Luck where the men have put them. I Don l know to what extent a writer is responsible few the sociological conditions Hal he describes. A writer makes his world but la very much based on the world he has experienced and seen and it been my Good Fortune to know a lol of Independent minded Brig he shrewd and interesting females and i suppose that this Bock is among other things Rny tribute to the female  Updike said he was upset when he first became aware that Many women objected to his portrayals of women they Sui prised me he said and suppose they even Hurt my feelings because i think of myself at a Man who had plenty to do with women in Many Capaci Liea Erma Bombeck begin Raiq wild my Molter and two daughters and two wives and a Tot of Semaje Ettora women have been code Grueb of mine As we As Domestic companions and i never thought of myself As Arry fling in my role As a Noveski but at and sympathetic. But what comes up when you venture before College audiences is thai there Aren t enough women in my books who Haie jobs. They re nol career minded they merely Are wives sex objects and purely Domestic Cre Luros and my Only defense would be thai it in the domesticity the family the sexual relations thai women in Eliest me i Don l write about Loo Many male businessmen and i m not Apt to write abort too Many female businessmen but knowing their 19 this reservation out in Waffle quarters Abou my portraits of women i m constantly trying to improve Idem. The witches of was riot cd was a very determined attempt to write about women who fid have careers of a sort they were professional witches. They were Active and dynamic they were much More dynamic than the men. So that was one attempt to make things right with my what shall we Call them feminist detractors and this is another. Here is a woman who tills the Book from cover to cover and i triad to show her achieving  a is also something else in is part of a trilogy. In an earlier interview. Updike said that his novel a month of sundays was dimm Esdale version of the Scarlet letter Low in modern dress and that his last novel. Roger version was Roger Chilingworth a Hester pry me husbands version of an instance of  s., Updike says is very much healer version the prynne Are among Sarah ancestors i guess it All goes Back to being very impressed by the Scarlet letter when i Road it i Don l know when in my 20s. I guess Updike said to o our Anna Karen and Madame Bovary. It is  to the novel of  Hawthorne sought to write about the truth of the Hurr in he�1," Ana that is a goal that also interests up he. The human heart tends to Snow Gilsett in either the sexual relation or me Parent Chad re talk he said end my inclination seems to be to write about thai almost exclusively. Bas Caty i a interested in those a Nuciol moments when we Lake our carapace of and make ourselves  my to ashram setting. S. Also has a great Deal to do with Eastern religion and philosophy. Tva not been  in Eastern thought updo said but in fact pm a card carrying Episcopalian. I was mostly interested in the sever Al guru figures who have edited the airwaves and the newspaper in America Over the test few of  years. In it was the extraordinary wish some people do have to find a religious Leader to find a Una of rather or somebody to be a Asti ple of. Mat interested  there a also in the Book a. W that could be construed As comedy. My first ambition was to be a  he said. 1 had adored Benchley and Thurber and . Whit and the whole new yorker school and wrote a lot of Irrl versa. But town life Seend to a More than comic even tragic. But i do notes that my later stuff is Tunny maybe i m getting More  i a Sarah writes that Ai he is. Ived on the Shin of the void and without real substance just motions we go through by constructing these haled Nastory goals and Short term  one of the things i was very aware of in writing the or Tom Updike said is the incongruous mix in our beset the most grave issues with the ban age of Irrovia thai has to be handled. H l hard to separate the trivia ran the big Lulf. I think they re All somehow on the mama level in an Odd Way. Certainty As we live from Day to Day. Our shoelaces coming undone and the fact that we re going to die someday both occur to us on almost the same Wavelength Sarah also writes Man stir you up. They always coma on too Strong or not Strong enough and emphasize the wrong  1 do think there is a Way Updike said in which men to the sensitive woman or even to the insensitive woman maybe All women Are sensitive men Are unsatisfactory and Clumsy and although love occurs women do two men you feel they manage ii somewhat in spite of the facts there1 a tend of built in forgiveness that goes along with female love. Whereas a Man i believe actually does see a woman As amazingly perfect when he in love Ahe a  and Sarah also writes it realty not Wise Lor married peo to or lovers to understand each other too Well communication i tear is hideously  i guess that is my sense of it Updike said. A Good relationship is one in which it understood that there a knit to what can be Conan unscaled and what can be shared. Allol our earthy signals Are Juri vat they re gestures and hints but there always going to be a toll hat can l be said a certain amount that Shouman Ibe said. I think bust act. Which operates in our super Lila social relations also really has la operate at the most intimate level that one is tactful even in the paroxysms of amorous miss that there a certain Large amount of the unsaid. But one can Teel that and Ato try to  according to a Small hem in the new yorker a note was found in a car that had been stolen in los Angeles and eventually resumed to ils owner. To pointed out thai the left Back Dre Trees air and the Brake i til comes Natol and cautioned the owner to Check out his brakes. Not Only that but he observed this sucker eats dealer Carbut ins was the arty one in which the keys had been left. His fare Cit message needs  and who says we Dan t communicate with one another a similar incident happened with our son in . When his car disappeared one night while a was in a restaurant. The Odds were pretty Good that in five hours h would undergo emergency surgery in Mexico from which ii would never recover three months later our son was astonished to learn that the land had his car in custody. When a was told to come and get in he did l know whether to take his Driver License or a shopping bag. When he saw his ear. He barely recognized it. It had obviously been stolen by a person of some Pride and taste the Interior had been sanitized and debris removed to reveal a decor thai can Only be described As Early sistine  there were statues dancing from the Mirror and secured to the dashboard now covered with e virginal White shag carpet the exterior of the car sparkled and glowed with fresh Wax. The windows and bumpers were papered with passages from the Bible and admonitions to be saved White there was Sta be. The motor had been tuned up end did t Stal at isms anymore. Rusty spots had been treated and pointed Over. The Gas gauge hat registered e on a Ful tank had been repaired. There was even a Bible in the trunk. There was no doubt to anyone mind that the Ca had been born  a car is a very personal part of to Driver. In Many Way it an Extension of you. When h has been with someone else you cannot help but toe jealous and have Ojue salons that need Ara Wera. A Codon l resist sitting around tying to create a profited the a  ear Tec a three months. We decided he was Rio baby a compassionate person to saw Bra Munfor Troia car thai had been neglected and abused and decided that one person could Maka a a Flarence. He a probably a Good person who. Hie Unda Evans wanted everyone and everything to he the Best that you can  he was a crusader of Ort who had a Mission to promote sharing a one material goads. He was a person who ived by the commandments. Except Ono. Page 16 the stars and stripes saturday. March 26,1988