Rich in Russia

''There, in Russia five years ago, when Cuba had been taken out of the oven to cool and Vietnam was still coming to a simmer, Bech did find a quality of life - impoverished yet ceremonial, shabby yet ornate, sentimental, embattled, and avuncular-reminiscent of his neglected Jewish past.''

In these two short stories, Updike''s brilliant observational acuity is matched by a light, comic touch. The wr...