Trust Me Author:John Upkike Short Stories. The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through Mr. Updike's new collection of short stories: Parent lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Long pangs, a favorite theme of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets and the dea... more »th of friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.« less