[1][2][3] The short story "The Sandstone Farmhouse" included in the collection won First Prize at the O. Henry Award competition in 1991.

Updike’s men try to remember the visions love brought to them, but the only solid evidence is the debris littering the sickbed: children, ex-wives, divided property, self-distrust, regret.

—Literary critic Micheal Harris in Facing the Realities of Aging, Death: The Afterlife and Other Stories, The Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1994.

[7] Jay Parini of The New York Times offers a mixed appraisal of the collection, describing Updike's style as "fluent to a fault, rich in metaphor, rising to exquisite heights in places, toppling elsewhere into preciousness and affectation."

"[8] Michael Harris of The Los Angeles Times declares that Updike's literary prowess undiminished in this collection: We have come to take his stylistic brilliance and structural ingenuity for granted, and some of his habitual gestures—the Greek mythology, the swatches of travelog, the cool, brittle encounters between lovers—seem like tics.