“A narrative is like a room on whose walls a number of false doors have been painted; while within the narrative, we have many apparent choices of exit, but when the author leads us to one particular door, we know it is the right one because it opens.”

—  John Updike

Introduction to The Best American Short Stories of 1984 (1984)

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American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, an… 1932–2009

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