I assume Priestdaddy features some fictionalized elements but I also assume that some of the most ridiculous parts are true.
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 00:08 (four years ago) link
sorrentino is a better and more important writer than updike
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 01:33 (four years ago) link
idst
More discussion here: updike novels poll
― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 01:42 (four years ago) link
In the end Wallace loved the sinner, as Updike wanted us to love Rabbit Angstrom. And part of the problem with our 360-degree view of modern authors is knowing where to put any of it. Wallace’s vivisection of Updike’s misogyny seems calm and cool and virtuous, and then you remember that to the best of anyone’s knowledge Updike never tried to push a woman out of a moving car.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 05:50 (four years ago) link
I suspect editors don't really know what to do with her, she's clearly a very talented writer but does not really fit into post huffpo content genres very easily and sits awkwardly between cerebral and literal on one hand and "refreshing" and unpretentious on the other. Some of her poetry is terrible and her interests are so much about style and genre to the extent that when she turns to "real world issues" she can seem very half formed.
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 bookmarkflaglink
I've yet to read anything beyond what she's written for the LRB (apart from her tweets) but I think it's working out well. iirc it began as writing on women -- her piece on Cusk was almost necessary because there's a lot of people that can't deal with her -- and the Updike is something else yet you can see the trajectory.
It's the LRB at 40 issue, and a good way to match to Empson on Skakey all the way back.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 08:48 (four years ago) link
I think I'd still take Of the Farm, the first 3 Rabbit books and a few stories with me (wherever that may be). There's something about his rendering of moment-to-moment perception that I like (albeit he's no Nabokov, and Alfred's point about the 'complacency' of his descriptions is naggingly correct). Ach, maybe Lockwood is right and it was just sheer propulsion that dragged me along.
Will look up her memoir, for sure.
― Life is a meaningless nightmare of suffering...save string (Chinaski), Saturday, 12 October 2019 15:30 (four 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