Plumbing by John Updike

It's all pipes!!

John Updike’s short stories often immerse themselves in nostalgia, and Plumbing is no exception. While some readers may find this sentimentality excessive, Updike’s masterful prose makes it feel profound rather than cloying.

The story begins with the narrator observing an old plumber repairing the leaky pipes in his newly purchased home. As the plumber describes the antiquated system with its "antique joints," the narrator slips into a poetic reverie, offering glimpses of his future in this house—raising a family, experiencing love, loss, and the slow passage of time. Updike distills these emotions into a single, striking realization: 

|“We think we have bought living space and a view when in truth we have bought a maze, a history, an archaeology of pipes and cut-ins and traps and valves.”|

This rich, evocative style runs throughout the story, capturing both the joy of childhood Easter egg hunts and the bitterness of marital fights, culminating in the family's eventual departure: “Our house forgot us in a day.” The brevity of this line makes it all the more poignant.

Throughout, the narrator likens himself and his family to ghosts—custodians of history, fleeting presences in a home that will outlast them. Updike’s meditation on impermanence is deeply affecting, turning the mundane into the universal. Beneath the surface of leaky pipes and household repairs lies a profound reflection on change, memory, and the ephemeral nature of life itself.