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The neglected pool
For his small anthology “Der verwaiste Swimmingpool” (engl.: The orphaned pool) John Updike selected stories from two of his numerous short stories collections Museums and Women (1972) and Problems (1979). By telling stories around themes like marriages and divorces, fights, children and parents, landscapes, weather conditions and automobiles Updike foregrounds domestic life and its disruptions. Metaphorically he incorporates the pool into one his story - the neglect of a swimming pool here becomes a symbol of the progressive decay of a relationship.