I've read all of Updike's books, including the wonderful poetry he wrote at the end of his life. I have this surprise of an anecdote to add: When I finished my memoir _(Re)Making Love_ that is here for free now on Substack and if okay, I will add a link at the end here. In the memoir that began as a blog before a publisher picked it up, I quoted with full attribution poets and authors and then needed permission to quote them. Every writer who was alive gave me that. All that were dead—with on exception—had estates that required me to pay them—even though the excerpts were fully annotated: John Updike!!! I hold him in my heart forever for the work, for the criticism, and for the gift of the quote. Off to buy his letters that I haven't yet read. Here's the link to my memoir: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/table-of-content
Finally got round to reading this with my Sunday coffee and I enjoyed it! You cover quite a bit of ground, and I liked how you incorporate your take on some of the novels into the piece as well.
Beautiful review that reminds me how much fun it is to read Updike. I know, I know, he's a discredited unprogressive old white guy, totally out of vogue, but the man could write a sentence!
I've read all of Updike's books, including the wonderful poetry he wrote at the end of his life. I have this surprise of an anecdote to add: When I finished my memoir _(Re)Making Love_ that is here for free now on Substack and if okay, I will add a link at the end here. In the memoir that began as a blog before a publisher picked it up, I quoted with full attribution poets and authors and then needed permission to quote them. Every writer who was alive gave me that. All that were dead—with on exception—had estates that required me to pay them—even though the excerpts were fully annotated: John Updike!!! I hold him in my heart forever for the work, for the criticism, and for the gift of the quote. Off to buy his letters that I haven't yet read. Here's the link to my memoir: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/table-of-content
Thank you for this wonderful essay, Kazuo!
Finally got round to reading this with my Sunday coffee and I enjoyed it! You cover quite a bit of ground, and I liked how you incorporate your take on some of the novels into the piece as well.
Beautiful review that reminds me how much fun it is to read Updike. I know, I know, he's a discredited unprogressive old white guy, totally out of vogue, but the man could write a sentence!
This is just excellent. Thank you.
Great piece about one of my most revered writers. I learned a lot!