Maleficia Revisited

The Widows of Eastwick is John Updike's follow up to the Witches of Eastwick almost a quarter century later. It is set in 2008 (the year the book was published) which makes it almost forty years later than the setting of the first book. At this point the three women live in different parts of the country and their second husbands are either dead or die shortly after the beginning of the novel. The women are all in their 70s and yet still as lively as ever. The novel begins by reintroducing us to Lexa in her new life as a widow in the South-West. The novel start by joining Lexa on a trip Canada. By beginning with Lexa alone, Updike is able to demonstrate how her mentality about life has changed over time. She has lost touch with nature, sees the witchcraft of her younger years as somewhat of a fad and still carries the guilt of what they did to Jenny Gabriel. After the trip the women begin to get back into contact but Sukie's husband is still alive. So Lexa and Jane decide to take a trip together to Egypt. Again, Updike sets up the situation to show the evolution of his characters and how their interaction has changed because of those developments. Finally Sukie's husband passes away and the three women decide to take a trip together.

Where else would the three women go but back to Eastwick of course. They rent a condo in the old Van Horne mansion or more specifically the room which had once been the hot tub room. They immediately are confronted with their past when Lexa runs into the wife of her old lover, Joe Marino. The women also see Gretta Neff, the wife of one of Jane's lovers when they go to a local concert and Sukie meets one of her old lovers when she returns to Dock Street. Their reasons for returning are partly to get back in touch with a part of their lives when the three were connected and they were enjoying themselves, partly to make up for past wrongs and partly to stir up more mischeif.

It is an incredible literary experiment. Such a large amount of time has past and Updike is at such a point in his life that these women are drastically different and yet retain the essence of the earlier characters. It is also incredible how topical this book is. It really nails the post 9/11 hysteria that gripped this country. Writing from the standpoint of an old women who lived through some very momentous times in this country and being written by a man who actually did live through those times, creates a very interesting perspective from which to view recent events. A lot of American hostility toward to Arab world was relflected in Jane and Lexa's attitudes towards Egypt during their trip. It was a very clear picture of the atmosphere that exists throughout most of this country. It was also interesting to see the treatment of sex. Lexa claimed to have lost interest in the physical aspect of sex, but the treatment in this book is far more explicit than when they were in their sexual primes. Especially for Sukie, who does not feel that same absence of a sexual appetite. Her past and current sexual activity is dealt with in some detail when it was skirted with more general description in the Witches of Eastwick. Maybe it is just a relfection of our societies increased acceptance of more explicit sexuality and a greater exposure to sex in general, but it is definitely a noticible shift from how it was previously portrayed.

There is one passage in the book which is incredibly important to my reading of the Witches of Eastwick. The passage is an exchange between Lexa and her eldest daughter who stayed in Eastwick to marry and raise a family,
"Girls your age just can't realize how few opportunities there were for women when I was young. Our job was to make babies and buy American consumer goods. If we fell off the marriage bandwagon, there was nothing much left for us but to ride a broomstick and cook up spells. Don't look so shocked, it was power: Everybody needs power. Otherwise the world eats you up."
"What about children? Isn't having them and loving them power enough for most women?"
"'In sorrow thou shalt bring forth cildren,'" Alexandra quoted, the quotation being fresh in her memory, "'and thy desire shall be to they husband, and he shall rule over thee.' Isn't that utterly disgusting?"

This passage sums up my impression of what Updike was trying to accomplish in the Witches of Eastwick. I felt as though Updike was trying to capture the essence of individual feminism during that time period. Women were given another option towards having control in their own life and an absolution when it came to traditional moral responsibility. As a result, our society went through some what of a tumult because the traditional familial model with women in a position of subordination was rejected. But that was not a bad thing, it was a necessary development. I am going to leave this post here, but I think I will come back to this idea as well as give a few more impressions about this book in my next post. Hopefully my many readers will be able to hold their collective breath in anticipation.