Too Far to Go is a collection categorized as a short story cycle because the stories tapped for inclusion in such a volume are connected to each other and ordered sequentially in a way that serves to tell a linear story, thought not necessarily chronologically. In this particular case, Updike does put the stories in chronological order according to the fictional time frame. Since the stories all focus on the marriage of a single couple, the effect is not unlike a novel in that the passage of time reveals the crumbling of the union. Nevertheless, the stories are all self-contained and represent in themselves a virtual career as the composition of the tales span the years between 1953 and 1994.
In a rather unique bit of marketing, the collection was published in the same year that a made-for-television movie based on the stories aired on NBC. The timing of this decision in conjunction with the subject covered by the stories inevitably lead to the supposition that drawn-out story of the crumbling of the marriage of Joan and Richard Maple was intended to be something of an Americanized version of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage. A severely curtailed edited version of the film had been a bit hit on the art theater circuit in American in 1974, but had originated as a six-episode miniseries of must-see television in Sweden the year before.
Too Far to Go (both the TV-movie and the short story collection) covers much of the same ground as that highly celebrated work by the legendary director. The collection was very well received by critics with some having gone so far as to declare it Updike’s most satisfying collection. A number of reasons could explain this laudatory reception, but the most likely is also the most obvious. The thing that separates a short story cycle from a collection that is merely a loosely grouped selection chosen primarily on the basis of publication date is that the cycle carries with an inherent sense of connectivity. The human brain is hardwired to find common associations and create links even when none are intended or exist. Therefore, it is only natural that where there is intent and purpose to create associational connections between stories on the part of the author, the reception is more likely to be pleased than not because also hardwired into the human brain a subliminal appreciation of symmetry.
The stories in Too Far to Go represent the height of symmetry that is possible in a collection of individualized standalone stories. If one applies a critical eye with a bit more harshness and attempts to untether themselves from that psychological propensity to find connections and be easily pleased by symmetry, it becomes less likely that one will put Too Far to Go at the top of the list of Updike’s multiple short story collections. Ironically, this lesser opinion is also formed on the basis of symmetry. There is a perfectly valid reason why most collections of a single author’s short stories tend to be published collectively in volumes that base their groupings on the chronology of publication. In addition to collections generally being published in conjunction with the actual number of stories hitting a certain acceptable mark for republishing in book form, a natural symmetry is produced by the linear progression of a writer’s evolving artistry. Although certain individual stories published early in a writer’s career may exceed the quality of those published later, generally speaking most writers get better with experience. Just like anyone else in any other field. Therefore, short story collection which are comprised of stories written during, say, a ten year period usually tend not to vary wildly in terms of quality.
That is not the case in Too Far to Go. In fact, the quality varies significantly from one story to the next. This is, of course, not due just entirely to the fact that Updike enjoyed twenty years of experience revealing the evolution of his abilities in some stories over others. Creating a short story cycle out of stories published over that prolonged period also makes the end result subject to variations in quality based simply on the fact that the writer may have been much plugged into the subject matter at certain points than others.
Taking these things into consideration, the symmetrical beauty of all the stories being organically connected by subject matter becomes less idealistic once one begins to notice the lack of symmetrical design in the variations of quality in the composition of stories spread out over such a long period of time.
