{"product_id":"2026100007880-secondhand-problems-and-other-stories","title":"Problems And Other Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Ex-library with usual markings \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Problems and Other Stories, John Updike turns his unflinching gaze on the quiet catastrophes of middle-class American life — marriages dissolving, identities fracturing, and desires colliding with the mundane realities of daily existence. This 1979 collection gathers twenty-three short stories, many of which chronicle the emotional turbulence of divorce and its aftermath, drawing on the raw material of Updike's own life with characteristic candour and precision.\n\nUpdike's prose is a masterclass in the art of the short story — sensuous, ironic, and alive with psychological acuity. His characters, most often men adrift in the wreckage of their own choices, are rendered with neither condemnation nor sentimentality, but with a compassionate clarity that illuminates the universal in the deeply personal. For readers who have yet to encounter Updike at his most intimate, Problems presents a disquieting question: if these are merely problems, what do the real crises look like?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130629234907,"sku":"2026100007880-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/0bf54a06-bc87-4958-a22a-4d0f335cef22.png?v=1786587969","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007880-secondhand-problems-and-other-stories","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}