PositiveThe Portland OregonianThe stories in My Father's Tears focus on the experiences of people who are looking at the world from the vantage point of someone more or less Updike's age … Several of the characters in these stories struggle with a loss of faith, echoing a theme explored in much of Updike's fiction. The most powerful instance of apostasy is rendered in what is also the most audacious of the stories in My Father's Tears, ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’ … These stories, like the Rabbit novels, are a window into the world Updike chose to inhabit and explore. They are a pleasure to read, even when the subject matter is death or the anticipation of annihilation, because they are so honestly observed and scrupulously executed.
