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