Editors Reads Verdict
Updike's most satirical long novel — the magical realism elements are deployed lightly, and the real subject is the social and sexual politics of small-town New England in the late 1960s. More playful than the Rabbit novels, and more consciously aware of its own politics.
What We Loved
- The prose is quintessential Updike — dense with sensory observation
- The satire of small-town social life is precise and funny
- The three women are more fully rendered than Updike's female characters typically are
Minor Drawbacks
- The male gaze is inescapable — Updike's prose renders the women through a lens they would not choose
- Darryl Van Horne is more symbol than character
Key Takeaways
- → Female power — including magical power — is portrayed in the novel as both real and ultimately insufficient against the forces of convention and male disruption
- → The 1960s sexual revolution produced its own forms of conformity and constraint — the novel satirises these as much as the conservative society that preceded them
- → Updike's prose renders the natural world of New England — seasons, light, landscape — with his characteristic and distinctive density
| Author | John Updike |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Knopf |
| Pages | 307 |
| Published | January 1, 1984 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Magical Realism |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Readers of Updike's other work — best approached with some familiarity with his style and its limitations. |
The Coven
Three divorced women — Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont — have been left by their husbands in the small Rhode Island town of Eastwick. In their freedom, they have acquired powers: small magic, nothing dramatic, but real. They form a loose coven.
Darryl Van Horne arrives, buys the local mansion, and disrupts the equilibrium. He is explicitly devilish — physically peculiar, morally unanchored, sexually omnivorous. His arrival and his departure structure the novel’s satirical examination of what female freedom actually means in 1960s New England.
The Prose
Updike writes about Eastwick with his characteristic attention to the physical world — the light on the marshes, the smell of autumn, the texture of houses and bodies. The prose is doing what all his best prose does: making the physical world feel charged with meaning without reducing it to symbol.
Our rating: 3.9/5 — Updike’s most playful novel — satire and sensory precision in equal measure.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "The Witches of Eastwick" about?
Three divorced women in a small Rhode Island town have acquired magical powers. When the mysterious Darryl Van Horne arrives, he disrupts their coven. A satirical novel about female power, desire, and the anxieties of the 1960s sexual revolution, told with Updike's characteristic density of observation.
Who should read "The Witches of Eastwick"?
Readers of Updike's other work — best approached with some familiarity with his style and its limitations.
What are the key takeaways from "The Witches of Eastwick"?
Female power — including magical power — is portrayed in the novel as both real and ultimately insufficient against the forces of convention and male disruption The 1960s sexual revolution produced its own forms of conformity and constraint — the novel satirises these as much as the conservative society that preceded them Updike's prose renders the natural world of New England — seasons, light, landscape — with his characteristic and distinctive density
Is "The Witches of Eastwick" worth reading?
Updike's most satirical long novel — the magical realism elements are deployed lightly, and the real subject is the social and sexual politics of small-town New England in the late 1960s. More playful than the Rabbit novels, and more consciously aware of its own politics.
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