John Updike's first collection of new short fiction since 2000 finds the author in a valedictory mood as he mingles narratives of his native Pennsylvania with stories of New England suburbia and of foreign travel.

'Personal Archaeology' considers life as a sequence of half-buried layers, and 'The Full Glass' distills a lifetime's happiness into one brimming moment of an old man's bedtime routine. High-school class reunions, in 'Fiftieth' and 'The Road Home,' restore their hero to youth's commonwealth where, as the narrator of the title story confides, 'the self I value is stored, however infrequently I check on its condition.' Exotic locales encountered in the journeys of adulthood include Morocco, Florida, Spain, Italy, and India. The territory of childhood, with its fundamental, formative mysteries, is explored in 'The Guardians,' 'The Laughter of the Gods,' and 'Kinderszenen.' Love's fumblings among the bourgeoisie yield the tart comedy of 'Free,' 'Delicate Wives,' 'The Apparition,' and 'Outage.'

In sum, American experience from the Depression to the aftermath of 9/11 finds reflection in these glittering pieces of observation, remembrance, and imagination.