A review by aanna
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

2.0

You know those guys who always say they are feminists, but really they're not? That's the vibe I got from this book. Updike tried, but not hard enough. Another reviewer said he seems to view women like an anthropologist studying an alien race, and I find that very accurate. He writes from three women's perspectives, and they are pretty complex and interesting characters, but it's ultimately very male gaze and extremely centered on their bodies, mostly about motherhood and marriage like nothing else matters. The women are petty and gossipy and always on the phone and always talking and thinking about men, y'know how women are. I would say it's annoying that all the characters are unlikable, but it's not that -- I love plenty of books and movies with all terrible characters -- there's just this gap in understanding. Also Updike kept touching on homosexuality without really going there, which made it weird and uncomfortable. This book probably made more sense to people who lived through the 70s and 80s, but it doesn't carry over. I liked the take on witchcraft to a degree; it was almost interestingly feminist then didn't quite pan out, because everything is really about men. There are ways the book could have ended to make it more redeemable, but it went in the worst way. I did like the prose and character development to a degree, plus some thoughts on witchcraft, hence the two instead of one stars.