Couples by John Updike (Knopf, 1968)
I suppose the reason I've never read John Updike's Couples is because, based on everything I've ever heard about it, I thought I would hate it. It is, in many ways, a hateful book--in every sense of that word--but I didn't hate it. It exasperated and disgusted me, but I also found it compelling, vividly observed, and often beautifully written.
My problems with the book come from the characters, as conceived and presented by Updike. They are all portrayed crudely and simplistically, stereotypically: the Asians are sallow (if not yellow); the Blacks, while mainly non-existent, are sub-human when they do appear; women are not much more than a sum--or cipher--of their sexual parts (tits, ass, and cunt); and the Jews have hooked noses and pockmarked skin.
The character at the center of all this white hetero smug male cluelessness is Piet Hanema, married to the beautiful and implacable Angela and fucking Georgene, Foxy, Bea, and Carol. He is not a sizable or interesting enough character to support the book's length and scope, which are overreaching. Most of the interesting things he thinks seem to be Updike's ideas grafted inorganically upon the character, and he sinks below the surface of authorial weight.
I actually, and surprisingly, liked some of the women characters: both Angela, Piet's wife, and Foxy, his (primary) mistress and second wife, are smart, funny, and refreshingly straight-forward and practical. They are both much too good for Piet.