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
Haha -- I was talking about Auchincloss; I guess I wasn't clear.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 29 November 2008 00:55 (fifteen years ago) link
as for Updike, if he's written a novel as good as A Modern Instance or The Rise of Silas Lapham, I've missed it.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 29 November 2008 01:03 (fifteen years ago) link
(to be fair, Updike did much to get Howells rehabilitated in the eighties)
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 29 November 2008 01:04 (fifteen years ago) link
well "as good as" is pretty subjective--and Howells and Updike are aiming for different things, so i don't think comparing them will get us anywhere
― Mr. Que, Saturday, 29 November 2008 01:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Subjective: "as good as"Objective: died this morning.
― Belles Letterz, Tuesday, 27 January 2009 18:53 (fifteen years ago) link
had to read this sentence abt 5 times in one of the pieces in self-consciousness (which is v good btw)
I seem to remember, on one endless drive back home in the dark down Route 93, while my wife sat in the front seat and her hair was rhythmically irratiated with light from the opposing headlights, patiently masturbating my back-seat neighbor through her ski pants, beneath our blanketing parkas, and taking a brotherly pride in her shudder of orgasm just as we hit the Ipswich turn-off.
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 14:09 (ten years ago) link
!!
Hope he cracked a window.
― only dogg forgives (Eazy), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 16:47 (ten years ago) link
that's precisely what I dislike about Updike: the precision with which it's overwritten.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 16:57 (ten years ago) link
lol turnoff
― i better not get any (thomp), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 17:22 (ten years ago) link
lol privilege embedded even at the grammatical level
but mainly lol turnoff
My problem is less with the writing and more just that he writes about doing kind of gross things in a self-congratulatory tone
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 17:31 (ten years ago) link
well i mean it's updike. that is the writing
― i better not get any (thomp), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 17:46 (ten years ago) link
xp otm
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 17:50 (ten years ago) link
actually I also hate "patiently masturbating" and also the fact that it's ski pants.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 18:22 (ten years ago) link
i hate brotherly pride. . . ew!!!!!
― waterface, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 18:22 (ten years ago) link
haha oh yeah that too. Really the whole thing is about as unsexy as it could be.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 18:27 (ten years ago) link
Google has "comradely pride"
― alimosina, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 18:42 (ten years ago) link
Google has been known to be wrong
― waterface, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 18:45 (ten years ago) link
That he's so casual and even eloquent about adultery makes the whole thing creepy and unnerving.
― More Than a Century With the Polaris Emblem (calstars), Wednesday, 24 July 2013 19:04 (ten years ago) link
The 60's man
― waterface, Wednesday, 24 July 2013 19:05 (ten years 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