Your Lover is Calling by John Updike

Bringing it back old school.

John Updike's depiction of middle-class white suburbia during the mid 20th century is not a subject matter that interests me very much and yet, stories such as Your Lover is Calling are so well-written, sharp, darkly humorous and totally engaging from start to finish. The prose flows seamlessly and there is a rich underlying subtext if you care to peel back the layers. The examination of a disintegrating marriage and gender roles with particular emphasis on toxic masculinity is familiar Updike territory.

This story is like watching a train wreck but you can't look away. It begins with a heated argument, the husband accusing the wife of having an affair because someone keeps calling the house and hanging up. 

Joan and Richard Maple are unhappily married and use alcohol as a coping mechanism in a failed attempt to mask their sorrow and avoid engaging in difficult conversations around trust, fidelity, shame, guilt and personal needs. They would feel right at home in a Raymond Carver story. Moreover, alcohol is a common motif in Updike's stories as well, a reflection of the cultural milieu and gender dynamics at play. The Maple's drink of choice is the martini, often associated with sophistication and affluence. Of course, this is merely a façade and not an accurate representation of the Maple's social status and dysfunctional relationship. Richard feels jealous and threatened by their friend Mack who is invited over for drinks, convinced that he is the one having an affair with his wife. He feels even more emasculated when asked by Joan to pick up lemons from the store for their martinis and catches his wife kissing Mack through the kitchen window. However, when confronting them, Joan and Mack merely shrug it off as nothing and claim Richard is overreacting. Later, she justifies kissing Mack out of the kindness of her heart because he is "lonely and drunk." Much of the story's humor arises from this odd scenario, leading to my favorite line uttered by Richard in response to the ridiculous situation: "Have you poisoned my drink and I'm too vigorous to die, like Rasputin?" Updike is keen to explore the couple's volatile relationship and their mutual affinity for alcohol to numb their depressing reality. 

These characters are self-absorbed, crude and very unlikeable but Updike does not resort to ridicule for the sake of pity; rather he creates flawed and complex characters, allowing the reader to sympathize with them instead. Is Joan committing adultery and making a cuckold out of her husband? Probably. Updike leaves it up to the reader to form their own conclusion and while the ironic ending seems inevitable, it is perfectly executed.