Married couples

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Couples (engl. Original title: Couples ) is a 1968 published novel by John Updike . The novel narration is one of the central works in Updike's extensive work and attracted so much attention when it appeared that Time magazine brought Updike's portrait with the headline “The Adulterous Society” on the front page. The translation into German by Maria Carlsson was published by Rowohlt Verlag in 1969 .

content

The largely narrative novel is set in the fictional American town of Tarbox in the 1960s and depicts the coexistence of various upper-middle-class couples who regularly meet up with other couples for dinner, sports (tennis, sailing, basketball) and cocktail parties. Detailed descriptions of the landscape and the weather form the atmospheric background to life in this small town, and extensive dialogues allow the reader to gain insight into the relationships between the married couples and between the individual couples within the group of friends.

This relaxed circle of friends is at the center of the novel and consists of the married couples Angela and Piet Hannema, Foxy and Ken Whitman, Bea and Roger Guerin, Janet and Frank Appelby, Marcia and Harold Smith (called Klein-Smith) and Georgene and Freddy Thorne. The men are building contractors, academics, doctors and privateers , the women are housewives and some are charitable.

At first glance, both the individual marriages and the friendships within this group seem to be stable and regulated and only gradually does it become clear that indifference, contempt, misunderstandings and alienation have crept in. The attempt to escape from the uniformity of everyday life and relationships leads to adulterous relationships. For example, Piet Hannema has a relationship with Georgene Thorne and Harold Smith one with Janet Appelby. At first it seems that all those involved, as far as they know or suspect something, can live well with these circumstances. Gradually, however, the untenability of the situation becomes clear. Finally, Angela divorces Piet, who will later marry Foxy, who also divorced Ken. The novel ends with the divorce of Angela and Piet.

Subject

Against the political background of the 1960s, the novel provides a critical picture of life in the upper middle class in a small American town. The marriages seem to be intact, you have children, you work, you maintain social contacts and friendships, you play sports and you enjoy your wealth. Behind this facade, however, everyone involved suffers from self-doubt, strangeness and boredom. Adultery appears at first as a way out of the inner emptiness until it too becomes a kind of dispassionate routine. The novel thus raises the question of which values, besides those of consumption, still play a role in American society, where friendships and sexuality are only consumed.

First edition

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Hage: John Updike. A biography , p. 46