― David Elinsky (David Elinsky), Thursday, 13 January 2005 19:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Steven Groth (fitch12), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Saturday, 15 January 2005 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― j c (j c), Sunday, 16 January 2005 18:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 22:42 (nineteen years ago) link
In general = in Updike, in literature, or in general general (i.e. a joke -- I have not spent much time with children while not a child myself so maybe I expect consistency where there shouldn't be) ?
although I'll have to consult my notes
A joke, then? Or you're a better reader than I.
― W i l l (common_person), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― the bellefox, Thursday, 20 January 2005 17:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 27 January 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― W i l l (common_person), Friday, 28 January 2005 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 4 April 2005 12:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― frankiemachine, Monday, 4 April 2005 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― frankiemachine, Monday, 4 April 2005 15:14 (nineteen years ago) link
But at the same time, Bech is not much of a character--more a conduit for Updike to express certain things about the writing life that would have been problematic for him to say with his own mouth.
By which I don't mean that Bech = Updike; rather that Updike used Bech both as a surrogate and as a point of contrast. He's Updike's mouthpiece when he needs him to be, but different enough (Jewish, hornier, less modest) to allow Updike a sort of playground.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 4 April 2005 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― On the bass, 57 7th, he wrote this (calstars), Monday, 16 May 2005 12:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― David N (David N.), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 23:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Luis Gonzalez, Thursday, 15 December 2005 22:31 (eighteen years ago) link
― Collardio Gelatinous (collardio), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 05:12 (eighteen years ago) link
From a French 12 years girl just arrived in a US school >>.thanks
― Margaux, Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 23:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 00:09 (eighteen years ago) link
argh.
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 00:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 00:17 (eighteen years ago) link
Kids these days.
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link
Margaux darling!? Come back! All will be revealed in a small iridescent sphere!
― Jaq (Jaq), Thursday, 26 January 2006 16:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 26 January 2006 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 27 January 2006 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 27 January 2006 16:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― def zep (calstars), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 11:05 (seventeen years ago) link
The Widows of Eastwick (a sequel to Witches of..) - october 2008.
The end of 2008: new updike, new Roth, new president.
― Zeno, Monday, 16 June 2008 03:28 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081126.wbadsex1126/BNStory/Entertainment/home
The 76-year-old American novelist was a finalist for this year's Bad Sex prize for his description of an explosive oral encounter in his latest book, The Widows of Eastwick, but lost out to British writer Rachel Johnso
― ian, Friday, 28 November 2008 04:35 (fifteen years ago) link
i find almost all updike sex = bad sex
― t_g, Friday, 28 November 2008 09:22 (fifteen years ago) link
i've never been able to read updike. don't know why. i usually love that kind of stuff. maybe when i'm older or something. everytime i've tried a novel i've ended up getting really bored.
(this is me and richard ford too.)
― scott seward, Friday, 28 November 2008 23:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I know why you can't read Updike - it's because reading him is like the process of extruding a turd but backwards.
He also wrote an introduction to a book by Bruno Schulz called Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, which he seemed to like (although I admit I read it through tightly slitted eyes). It was a very bad book and it made me say very bad words and do violence at it.
― GamalielRatsey, Friday, 28 November 2008 23:46 (fifteen years ago) link
last time i tried to read some richard ford short stories i saw my life flash before my eyes. sooooooo endless and tedious.
i think i just read louis auchincloss instead of updike. probably nowhere near as "brilliant", but way more entertaining.
i wanna read more cheever. i've got a really nice big fat hardcover collection of his stories that i need to get to.
― scott seward, Saturday, 29 November 2008 00:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Wow, Scott, you like Auchincloss? Glad to see a fellow fan.
He reminds me a bit of William Dean Howells: not a single sentence surprises, and he's so obsessed with a certain kind of professionalism that some of his scenarios aren't as conceived as fully as I'd like; but, wow, a certain kidn of professoinalism goes a long way: he publishes a book (two sometimes) a year.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 29 November 2008 00:10 (fifteen years ago) link
and he's so obsessed with a certain kind of professionalism that some of his scenarios aren't as conceived as fully as I'd like
example of these "scenarios"? this doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. I think his sentences, on a prose level, can be quite surprising: rich and lyrical. but his novels all read the same. maybe this is what you mean? i think his rabbit books are his best work and his stories are pretty boring.
― Mr. Que, Saturday, 29 November 2008 00:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Jesus - I'd pretty much expunged Skeeter from my mind. OK, I'll drop Redux.
― Life is a meaningless nightmare of suffering...save string (Chinaski), Saturday, 12 October 2019 15:35 (four years ago) link
I went to a used bookstore today and they had two of old rabbit hardcovers , some short story collections , and bech hardcover. Might go back and buy them out tomorrow
― calstars, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 14:35 (one year ago) link
The Rabbits diminish in quality over time IMO. There is some pretty fresh writing in the first 1.5, but by the end it gets dreary. And some VERY problematic race/sex shit appears.
Bech is a time capsule. If you're interested in literary life of that time period, the Bech stuff is illuminating. There are flashes of what JHU himself might have been feeling and experiencing, like signing flyleaf pages that will later be tipped in.* Bech's Jewishness is a red herring to throw you off the scent. Updike knew a lot about some things; I don't think Jewishness was one of those things.
Snag them if you want, but they are probably in a public library somewhere. I have read all of those books exactly once. Yes I probably own the hardcovers (currently in storage), but these days I mostly only buy books that I want to refer to or re-read.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
* yes, I own a "signed first edition" Updike. Witches of Eastwick.
But it's not organic or rare or valuable - it was explicitly created as a "signed first edition," and marketed as such.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 15:13 (one year ago) link
Sorry to be so ornery, because I do admire him as a stylist. On the short story collections: some of them are extremely good! Highly recommended: Museums and Women, Problems, and whichever one has "The Brown Chest" in it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1992/05/the-brown-chest/667775/
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 15:18 (one year ago) link
Yeah they had the hardcover of museums…tempting. A time capsule for sure
― calstars, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:28 (one year ago) link
I was curious a few weeks back whether Updike (passing in 2009) had done any podcast interviews, and then enjoyed this two-part one from 2006 on Michael Silverblatt’s Bookworm.
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:37 (one year ago) link
Okay despite all the usual critiques of Updike, Museums and Women is fucking amazing. There's a hilarious and expertly crafted story about amoebae going to a cocktail party. One about Japanese Jesus. One about prehistoric animals. One about advances in farming technology.
In all his vast catalog there are only a few books that manage to escape his main subject matter (drab New England WASP adultery and its dreary complications). Museums and Women is by far the best of them. Grab it.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:51 (one year ago) link
None of those premises sound appealing to me lol
― calstars, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:54 (one year ago) link
You’re saying the book is not about museums and women?
It's about women as museums.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:55 (one year ago) link
If you think a middle-aged suburban white guy wondering whether or not to cheat on his wife is an interesting premise, but a euglena going a cocktail party isn't, I just don't know what to tell you.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link
ftr I admire Updike's criticism: thanks to him, I discovered Henry Green and Muriel spark, among others. And he was generous toward Cheever. But I could never finish his fiction, not once. The facility, the complacency of the descriptions -- it had a lulling effect. He and Cheever get bound together, but Cheever was fuckin' weird.― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 3, 2019
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 3, 2019
― dow, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 17:44 (one year ago) link
"The Brown Chest" (lovely; thanks for the rec!) isn't The Afterlife.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 17:46 (one year ago) link
Lord Alfred: The last paragraph of "The Brown Chest" kills me every time. For all my crankitude about JHU, that "Family, family without end" passage is crystalline and pretty much perfect.
Bastard.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 17:52 (one year ago) link
Is IN The Afterlife, a later story collection.
I liked that conclusion too.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 17:57 (one year ago) link
Yes! I am casting my memory back to The Afterlife, and another interesting story in that collection is "Aperto, Chiuso." It's a pretty thorny bit of misogyny that is paradoxically revealing.
The woman is being portrayed as irrational and hysterical. The guy is presenting himself as decent and well-intentioned and perplexed by her irrationality. But then on second thought, he's the viewpoint character so he's obviously sculpting the narrative; if you read it through 21st-century eyes you can see that he's actually being kind of a dick. Not sure if that's how Updike saw it but that's my current reading.
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:07 (one year ago) link
That's good that the story lets you do that: a strong. always pertinent POV, suitable for different interpretations.xp first gondolier first gondola, I meant! Proustian Slip, but also I was trying to suppress reference to Updike as my thoughtful gondolier on this maiden voyage through his review, because too corny even for me.
― dow, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:12 (one year ago) link
But even or especially with Pinter's crisp, startling reduction, there's a sense of gliding conveyed by Updike's impressions of his reading and thinking experience.
― dow, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
Carefully guided, responsive gliding.
― dow, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:18 (one year ago) link
Glide, Rabbit, Glide
― blissfully unawarewolf (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:19 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxkjvKBPQjo
― 2-4-6-8 Motor Away (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 18:25 (one year ago) link
I read RABBIT, RUN, and greatly admired its style, and was surprised and maybe even disturbed by its drama.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 21:01 (one year ago) link
I have a Henry Green book signed by John Updike. The man must have put his signature in everything.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Friday, 28 October 2022 01:14 (one year ago) link
Reminds me of the time David Markson's library ended up at The Strand.
― Capital Radio Sweetheart (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 October 2022 01:26 (one year ago) link
A friend of mine brought a copy of Nicholson Baker’s U and I to a reading for Updike to sign.
― The self-titled drags (Eazy), Friday, 28 October 2022 04:04 (one year ago) link
I saw a film trailer today for something called Living which I was sure was a Henry Green adaptation. I want to believe.
― Capital Radio Sweetheart (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 October 2022 04:24 (one year ago) link
Apparently it's an Englishing of a Kurosawa movie.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Friday, 28 October 2022 06:38 (one year ago) link
Oh right.
― Capital Radio Sweetheart (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 October 2022 06:38 (one year ago) link