{"product_id":"2026100007884-secondhand-couples","title":"Couples","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good. Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage — chipping along spine and corners, some wear along folds. Page Condition: Good. Markings: markings on fep. Binding condition: Binding intact. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the quiet, affluent suburb of Tarbox, Massachusetts, ten married couples construct an insular world of dinner parties, sexual intrigue, and casual betrayal — a social universe that John Updike dissects with surgical precision in Couples. At the centre of this web stands Piet Hanema, a Dutch-born architect whose Calvinist guilt and restless desire propel him into a series of adulterous affairs, even as his own marriage slowly unravels. The novel chronicles the rituals and transgressions of post-war American suburbia, mapping the spiritual void beneath the gleaming surfaces of prosperity, conformity, and erotic freedom.\n\nUpdike writes with a sensuous, almost baroque prose style — richly textured and morally complex — that transforms the mundane architecture of suburban life into a stage for profoundly human drama. Couples stands as one of the defining American novels of the 1960s, arguing that the sexual revolution did not liberate its participants so much as it replaced one form of religion with another. Updike's unflinching portrait of desire, mortality, and the collapse of community leaves the reader questioning whether intimacy, in any of its forms, can ever truly save us.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49130629169371,"sku":"2026100007884-SECONDHAND","price":20.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/7292789e-e7bc-4cf9-96ef-48292fa21417.png?v=1786587965","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100007884-secondhand-couples","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}