SOURCE: "Ceremonies of Farewell: Pigeon Feathers," in John Updike: A Study of the Short Fiction, Twayne Publishers, 1993, pp. 22-42.

In the following excerpt, Luscher argues that "A & P" is "another story of a character caught in the middle between romance and realism."

"A & P," Updike's most frequently anthologized piece, is, on the surface, uncharacteristic. Sammy, the brash teenaged narrator, fashions a seamless narrative and fastmoving plot that is structurally distinct from the lyrical mood or the much looser construction generally evident in Updike's short fiction. A closer inspection of "A & P," however, reveals similar thematic concerns and narrative techniques. Ringing up HiHo crackers rather than reading Virgil, Sammy stands apart from the sensitive young men Updike habitually portrays in his Olinger stories; he is closer in spirit to Ace Anderson of Updike's early story "Ace in the Hole." Yet his impulsiveness ultimately gives way to a nascent awareness...