A MONTH OF SUNDAYS

In this riff on Nathanial Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, the Reverend Tom Marshfield, a latter-day Arthur Dimmesdale, is sent from his Mid-western parish in sexual disgrace. At a desert retreat dedicated to rest, recreation, and spiritual renewal, this fortyish serial fornicator is required to keep a journal whose 31 weekly entries constitute the book we are now reviewing. In his wonderfully overwrought style he lays bare his soul and his past - his marriage to the daughter of his ethics professor, his affair with his organist, his antipathetic conversations with his senile father, and all about his bisexual curate, his golf scores, his poker hands, his biblical exegeses, and his smouldering desire for the directress of the retreat, the impregnable Ms Prynne. Playful, witty, Updike is as ironic, provocative and erotic as ever and dazzling in his word play. Written in 1975. 215pp in paperback, remainder mark. Jacket design may vary.