The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike

It's the marvelous story of three ambitious witches living in a small New England town in the late 1960s, who find themselves quite under the spell of the new man in town, Darryl Van Horne, whose hot tub is the scene of some rather bewitching delights. n nJohn Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters and] The Witches of Eastwick is one of his] most ambitious works. .

. . A] comedy of the blackest sort.--The New York Times Book Review n nToward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorc es with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious.

Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick--and through the even darker fantasies of the town's collective psyche.

n nA great deal of fun to read . . .

fresh, constantly entertaining . . .

John Updike is] a wizard of language and observation.--The Philadelphia Inquirer n nVintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.--Newsdayn