SOURCE: "Pigeon Feathers: The Design of Design," in John Updike, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1973, pp. 60-79

In the following excerpt, Detweiler focuses on pacing and narrative tone in "A & P, " noting Updike 's gradual building of tension and "tempered humor."

The fourteenth story of Pigeon Feathers, entitled "A & P," is one of Updike's most popular; and it has been anthologized in college and commercial collections. It is indeed one of the brilliant pieces that redeem the few pages of inferior writing in the book. Sammy, the narrator, is a nineteen-year-old working as a checkout clerk in the A & P market on a Thursday afternoon. The scene is an unnamed Massachusetts town (Tarbox of Couples?) north of Boston and "five miles from a beach, with a big summer colony out on the Point."

Into the staid store in this staid place walk three girls barefoot and in swimming suits, probably...