Villages

‘Wonderful stuff’ Daily MailOWEN MACKENZIE LOOKS BACK ON HIS LIFE AS A SON., A FATHER, A HUSBAND…AND A SERIAL ADULTERER.Owen Mackenzie’s life story abounds with sin and seduction, domesticity and debauchery. After growing up in the small town of Willow, Owen marries the elegant and remote Phyllis, his college girlfriend. But this soon leads to his first betrayal and he abandons his reserve, embarking on a series of affairs and sexual encounters in New England and as far afield as Las Vegas, Nevada. This is America during the revolutionary sixties and seventies, and Owen’s profession as a computer programmer does not shelter him from the era’s reckless appetites.Owen’s pursuit of happiness, in a succession of small towns from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, brings him to the edge of chaos, from which he is saved by a rescue that carries its own fatal price.‘Updike has an artist’s eye. His scrutiny, hard and clear as a magnifying lens, brings every detail into bright focus. It burns its images on to the reader’s mind’ The Times‘Updike can bring us nearer than anyone to the sensations of being alive’ Spectator‘There are moments of real insight and exquisitely couched melancholy’ Mail on Sunday‘Every single elegant., spring-heeled sentence is freighted with experience and Updike’s unique ability to conjure up the physical world in vivid and surprising detail’ Marie ClaireEnergetic, funny and perceptive’ Esquire