S.

"S. "is the story of Sarah P. Worth, a thoroughly modern spiritual seeker who has become enamored of a Hindu mystic called the Arhat. A native New Englander, she goes west to join his ashram in Arizona, and there struggles alongside fellow "sannyasins" (pilgrims) in the difficult attempt to subdue ego and achieve "moksha "(salvation, release from illusion). S. details her adventures in letters and tapes dispatched to her husband, her daughter, her brother, her dentist, her hairdresser, and her psychiatrist messages cleverly designed to keep her old world in order while she is creating for herself a new one. This is Hester Prynne s side of the triangle described by Hawthorne s "Scarlet Letter;" it is also a burlesque of the quest for enlightenment, and an affectionate meditation on American womanhood. "From the Trade Paperback edition.""

About the Author :
John Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of "The New Yorker." His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal. In 2007 he received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Updike died in January 2009.

Review :
One of Updike s lightest, funniest, and slyest fictions a comedy about the sneaky economies of the spirit. " The New Yorker" "" This comedy of Brahmin manners is . . . a mercilessly funny account of life in a religious commune. Some would say that Sarah s flight to self-discovery is strictly in the best Puritan tradition. "The Washington Post Book World" A spiritual adventure story . . . Updike fully inhabits his imperfect matron. Her voice, which can sweep from the heights of religious fluff to the swamps of bathos in astonishing feats of non sequitur, is a wonderful comic invention. "Newsweek" "From the Trade Paperback edition."" "One of Updike's lightest, funniest, and slyest fictions--a comedy about the sneaky economies of the spirit.""--The New Yorker" " " "This comedy of Brahmin manners is . . . a mercilessly funny account of life in a religious commune. Some would say that Sarah's flight to self-discovery is strictly in the best Puritan tradition."--"The Washington Post Book World" "A spiritual adventure story . . . Updike fully inhabits his imperfect matron. Her voice, which can sweep from the heights of religious fluff to the swamps of bathos in astonishing feats of non sequitur, is a wonderful comic invention."--"Newsweek" "From the Trade Paperback edition." "A Tour De Force." -- The New York Times "One of Updike's lightest, funniest, and sliest fictions -- a comedy about the sneaky economies of the spirit." -- The New Yorker "Entirely satisfying and entertaining with a good half-dozen hilarious twists and surprises at the end for everyone...John Updike has given us with S., his 12th and funniest novel." -- Chicago Sun-Times "Delightful and penetrating...[John Updike] is the chief chronicler of the life and times of the modern American middle class -- and perhaps its most important literary conscience." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer "Immensely clever...The novel glimmers with the wry intelligence one has come to associate with Updike's vision." -- The Boston Globe "From the Trade Paperback edition."