SOURCE: A review of A Cat, a Man, and Two Women, in The New Yorker, Vol. LXVII, No. 10, April 29, 1991, pp. 101-02.

A perceptive observer of the human condition and an extraordinary stylist, Updike is considered one of America 's most distinguished men of letters. Best known for such novels as Rabbit Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990), he is a chronicler of life in Protestant, middle-class America. In the following review, Updike comments on the bizarre events depicted in A Cat, a Man, and Two Women (Neko to Shōzō to futari no onna).

In the long title story [of A Cat, a Man, and Two Women], we are not surprised that the hero, the plump and ineffectual Shozo, loves his pet cat, Lily, more than he loves either his wife, Fukuko, or his exwife, Shinako, but we are surprised to have the love...