The Afterlife & Other Stories (Hardcover) by John Updike

To the hero of the title story of this collection, all of England has the glow of an afterlife: A miraculous lacquer lay upon everything, beading each roadside twig . . . each reed of thatch, each tiny daisy trembling in the grass. All of these stories, each in its own way, partake of this glow, as life beyond middle age is explored & found to have its own exquisite dearness. As death approaches, existence takes on, for some of Updikes aging characters, a translucence, a magical fragility; vivid memory & casual misperception lend the mundane an antic texture, & the backward view, lengthening, acquires a certain grandeur. Here is a world where wonder stubbornly persists, & fresh beginnings almost outnumber losses.