Taste of Metal by John Updake

Do you want the cherry or mint fluoride?

John Updike’s Taste of Metal revisits the lives of Richard and Joan Maple, recurring characters in his celebrated sequence of short stories. Like pieces in a mosaic, these stories don’t follow a strict linear path but instead form a vivid portrait of a marriage caught in a ceaseless cycle of love, regret, disappointment, boredom, and routine.

In this installment, Richard’s mundane suburban life takes a chaotic turn. After getting some dental work done and indulging a bit too heavily at a cocktail party, he crashes his brand-new car into a pole with his wife and a woman named Eleanor sitting in the passenger seat (Joan’s attractive friend whom he has been flirting with all night). While Joan goes to seek help, Richard, torn between guilt and impulse, shares a tender, guilt-ridden kiss with Eleanor. The scene is charged with Updike’s signature blend of humor and melancholy, exploring the moral conflict of adultery that hovers over the story.

Updike skillfully juxtaposes the sterile privilege of white suburban life—cocktail parties, swimming pools, well-kept lawns—with the emotional restlessness simmering beneath the surface. The characters grapple with dissatisfaction, addiction, and temptation, painting a bittersweet picture of an affluent world that is, at once, deeply flawed and achingly human.

As both chronicler and critic of white suburban existence, Updike delivers a narrative that feels both scathingly honest and oddly tender. Taste of Metal is a sharp, terse, wistful exploration of desire, discontent, and the imperfect lives behind the white picket fences.