Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “To be honest, I bought this book because I loved the movie. To my surprise, it was nothing like the movie--IT WAS BETTER! The witches come off as these grotesque and yet admirable thirtysomethings. So well-rounded, they made Cher, Pfiefer and Sarandon look like brainless dolls, which is something...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “This book took me much longer than it should have to read. It was really slow going. It's verse and wording are rather complicated and sort of run-together so it was difficult to follow at times. I am not happy with the way he is representing these women either, he makes them out to be very...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“almost too much fun to be Updike. A very funny story that is more than just witches and revenge. a fun time”
Bil wrote this review Wednesday, November 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This took me a long time to read and I kept mentally contrasting it to the movie (very difficult, as they are hardly the same at all). But, I really liked the end ... almost enough to make me consider picking up The Widows of Eastwick.”
Sonja P wrote this review Friday, November 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This really didn't do that much for me. Honestly, I liked the movie a lot more, and that's saying something. Perhaps it would have done more for me if I'd read it when it was first written - but then again, a really good book should hold up over time.
emilysk wrote this review Sunday, November 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Just in case you haven't seen the movie or read the book - a mysterious stranger moves to the small coastal town of Eastwick and buys a decripit mansion that he fixes up in strange and bizarre ways. Each of the witches in town has some sort of fling with him and eventually finds him unsatisfying.
Now I hear there's a TV series based on the book as well, but I haven't seen it. I expect it is a lot like Desparate Housewives but with witches. Oh well. ”
“Reading for the book club...”
Michael R wrote this review Tuesday, September 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Magic, powerful women, sex, and transformation. Oh, there's also a good storyline. Enjoy.
Kelly D wrote this review Sunday, September 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Note: When I rate a book with 5 stars, it has to be a work of historical/cultural significance. If it is fiction, there must be a solid plot, interesting characters (especially female characters), and it has to profoundly affect me emotionally, spiritually, even physically (e.g., can't swallow).”
“Strange. Very original. Nothing like the silly movie based upon it. ”
Leif wrote this review Sunday, September 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“So, I'm gonna give lots of spoilers, but I'll give an alert before I do it. I liked this book a lot. It started off a little slow, but I really did get into it. I knew this had been made into a movie, but I didn't think I'd ever seen that version. Now I've watched it too and I KNOW I've never watched it. The book felt more about how Van Horne moved in and made the witches doubt themselves, when they really were doing just fine. Or, at least, that's how I saw it. The movie was horrid in comparison to the book. I'm usually pretty lenient on book to movie adaptations. I understand that they can't put everything in the movie and since they can't sometimes they have to rearrange or change a few things. However, usually the entire tone of each is the same. This one? Well, what else can I say but, they really fucked it up.
Jennifer J wrote this review Thursday, August 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
SPOILER:
So, in the book, these three witches live in Eastwick. They've all divorced and their husbands are all dead now. They have affairs with all the married men of the town. They prefer it that way, actually. Alexandra's a sculptor, Jane is a cellist, and Sukie's a gossip columnist. One day, a man moves into an old, rundown house. His name's Darryl Van Horne and he's a sort of scientist working on a paint that conducts energy..or something like that. He's also an amateur art collector. He puts in a tennis court right where the local bird, the snowy egret, lives and spends lots of money on a state of the art bath room, equipped with a hot tub. The women fall for them and after all coming there to play tennis one night, they all fall into bed together after a long soak in the tub. These orgies continue while their own affairs with other married men in the town also continue.
Sukie's involved with a reverend of a Unitarian church. She breaks up with him and he runs off with a local hippie "fight the man" type girl and gets blown up while trying to assemble a bomb. The wife continues on taking his job until they can find a replacement. Sukie moves on to the editor of her newspaper, whose wife is one of those women who's fighting any and every cause and is always annoying people talking about it constantly. Sukie breaks up with him. He gets tired of his wife's bitching and bashes her head in. Then he kills himself. It seems that any of the townspeople that badmouth the three witches start spitting up random things...mostly feathers and twigs and such. We see it in both of the wives of Sukie's past lovers. The editor has two children who come to settle the estate. Sukie befriends the girl and invites her to Van Horne's to play tennis. She brings her sullen brother, who reads comic books the entire time. They don't really have their orgies any more, as the girl's quite modest. She's got experience with lab work and starts to work with Van Horne.
One night, the three witches come over for their usual get-together and they find that Van Horne and the girl are married. The witches are pissed and work a spell on her. She gets sick...cancer everywhere and eventually dies. Van Horne splits town with the brother. Turns out he was really in love with the brother and his name wasn't really Van Horne. He hadn't paid any of his bills.
Now, in the movie version, the women don't know their witches, but they accidently cause a rain shower at a boring assembly by all wishing for it. One night, they talk about wishing for a man, naming all these qualities and that's when Van Horne shows up. None of them seem to be having affairs with anyone. Van Horne and the women talk about the editor's wife one night, wishing her all this ill will. She's falled down and broke her leg and after that, she raved about all these issues, and evidently was perfectly lovely before that. She eventually dies and the women are horrified that they made it happen. They refuse to see Van Horne again and he's pissed. They all three discover their pregnant. He goes on a rampage, trying to get them back. They finally relent and go back for one night with him. While he goes out the next morning for bagels and ice cream, they curse him and all this bad stuff happens to him. He comes back, in a rage. He's some type of warlock. The eventually kill him, mostly. They move into that big house and have their kids. Van Horne talks to the kids through the tvs.
They barely resemble each other! Gah! It was irritating seeing the movie version.”
“Entertaining novel about some suburban witches. Made into a good movie with Jack Nicholson as the devil.”
Selina C wrote this review Saturday, August 15 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“JudithG said: 4 stars
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Saturday, August 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This is Updike’s 1984 novel about three divorced, suburban women who happen to be witches. The story is set in an imaginary Rhode Island town during the early 70’s. Updike paints a gossipy picture of the private and not so private interactions of Eastwick’s inhabitants. I was immediately attracted to the wry humor of Updike’s descriptions. Each of these witches discovered their powers upon separating from their husbands. They each have the remains of a husband preserved in some diabolical and symbolic way. I loved the humor of the spells cast to sabotage the opposing teams while they played doubles tennis with the town’s new and mysterious bachelor. The whole town of Eastwick lives and breathes in the many descriptive passages. I couldn’t help enjoying the rich quality of the language. I just didn’t like any of the characters and I didn’t really want to know the intimate details of their sordid affairs. My 4 star rating for the book doesn’t reflect how much I enjoyed the story. I didn’t really like it, but like it or not, I have to acknowledge the skill and beauty of the writing.
”
“Written in 1984, this novel was interesting to me for its portrayal of women's liberation. The three witches are all liberated from their husbands, but not at all happy and/or content. They dabble in a lot of adulterous relationships and mischievous magic. Along comes their devilish temptation in the form of a new-to-town bachelor. The magic turns more evil when he takes up with a new, younger witch. The characters were all interesting and the prose was beautiful. One difficulty I had in reading the novel were the occassional long gaps between parts of a conversation. ”
Becky S wrote this review Thursday, July 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
