John Updike has written a sequel to the Witches of Eastwick
, the Widows of Eastwick
, both of which are written from the perspective of three women, whom New York
's Emily Nussbaum describes as "a coven of divorced mothers in a small New England town." Nussbaum is disappointed with Widows
, as she finds it unsympathetically misogynistic. "Updike’s awed malice seems to have curdled into something like contempt... Their artistry, a major element of the original book, has dwindled to a nub: Alexandra spins a pot or two, Jane has abandoned her passionate cello playing, and Sukie writes gloppy romances, the hack effusions of a silly woman." It begs the question: can male writers write from the female perspective without falling into stereotypical traps? [NY Mag
]
