by John Updike
First published 1996
Harry Angstrom stands on the lot of Springer Motors in 1979, watching America unravel around him. Skylab tumbles from orbit, drivers wait in endless gas lines, and President Carter faints during a marathon. Double-digit inflation grips the nation. Yet Harry feels good. As Chief Sales Representative of the Toyota agency in Brewer, Pennsylvania, he has finally achieved the prosperity that eluded him in his younger years. He's ready to savor life at fifty-six. Then his son Nelson comes back from the West, bringing complications Harry thought he had left behind. An old flame appears at the dealership, stirring memories and desires he believed were buried. The comfortable middle-aged existence Harry has built begins to shift beneath his feet. He finds himself once again chasing something he cannot quite name, pursuing happiness in his own stumbling way while the world changes around him.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, coming-of-age, slice-of-life
Setting: Brewer, Pennsylvania, Springer Motors, United States
Period: 1979
544 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks