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]