About to begin

With tons of academic reading material to plow through, I'm thinking of reading John Updike's The Early Stories.

An update (22 Feb 2020):

The first story, "You'll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You," is about Ben who goes to the carnival. He takes his chances but doesn't win. Somewhere in the story are feelings of disappointment and hope, pity and compassion, cruelty and kindness. Made me remember the carnivals in Marbel. The story ends with a punch:

Thus the world, like a jaded coquette, spurns our attempts to give ourselves to her wholly.

I'm loving this.