"God is the Lord of angels and of men -- and of elves."
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
John Updike died today, at age 76, from lung cancer.
This seriously bums me out. I was a late adopter to Updike's writing, but I quickly became obsessed. He easily supplanted Paul Auster as my favorite contemporary novelist, and he might have been America's greatest living novelist. Until today.
I remember reading Rabbit, Run, the first in Updike's four Rabbit novels, and being blown away. I've been reading novels, including literary novels, since I was a kid, but in my late twenties I had no idea someone could write like that. And by "like that" I mean "apparently just for me."
Since then I've rather quickly been making my way through the rest of his works. Updike's stories are mythic in weight but highly specific and relational in content. He wrote about lots of marriages, each of them Adam and Eve in the broken garden, and lots of affairs, each of them as ridiculous to us as they are sensible to the adulterers.
Updike wrote ecstatically but not chaotically. I think that's what got me every time: the controlled way he seemed to open a vein on the page.
He was uninhibited and wrote with zero pretension, despite his snooty upbringing and the pretensions of lots of his characters. He somehow managed to capture the curious national blend of sex and religion and American dreaming. I don't know of any other Christian writer (or, Christian who is a writer, if you prefer) who was as frank about total depravity (and called it that).
Bottom line, though: He told stories. And Updike could just flat out write.
Gonna miss him.
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Comments on "We Lost a Giant":
2. Brian in Fresno
- 01/27/2009 3:41 pm CST
For those few of us that haven't read much fiction is there one particular book of his that you would recommend?
3. Raindream
- 01/27/2009 3:43 pm CST
I knew you liked him. This kind of thing, this depth of knowledge, makes me think I should stop blogging. I am subpar.
4. Jared
- 01/27/2009 3:47 pm CST
Raindream, you forget more about lit-blogging than I could ever think up.
5. Jared
- 01/27/2009 3:48 pm CST
BiF, I think his best is the 2nd Rabbit novel, Rabbit Redux, but you might have to read the first one to sort of have the backstory.
6. Richard
- 01/27/2009 3:54 pm CST
You should read the entire "Rabbit" series; they are all excellent depictions of American life in each of the decades they portray.
9. Jared
- 01/27/2009 4:06 pm CST
There's 4, yes.
Some publisher released them 2 books each in 2 volumes, and somebody might have all four in one volume. Could probably find them used, as I have.
10. Jared
- 01/27/2009 4:08 pm CST
Btw, when I say he writes with zero pretension, I am trying to be bold, b/c one of his critics' chief complaints is that his prose is so overwrought as to disguise its superficiality. Some would claim there is no novelist more pretentious.
I'm not only saying that's not true, I'm saying that he never held back. And holding back is a mark of pretension, in my opinion.
12. Raindream
- 01/27/2009 4:11 pm CST
Wasn't Rabbit Redux the one many critics or people or unqualified lit-bloggers didn't like? I think the first and forth Rabbit books won Pulitzers, and if that's not right, the fourth one did and the rest won collectively as a trilogy--as I recall, he wrote the last one a good bit after the others.
13. Jared
- 01/27/2009 4:14 pm CST
Raindream, don't know. Haven't read much critical treatments of his stuff. Just know the general appraisal. The article, for instance, says Mailer hated him. ;-)
Rabbit Redux was the most ecstatic and engaging for me. Has the whole 60s thing with the son's girlfriend and the black militant and Vietnam as the backdrop and Rabbit's holed away in the house with these "aliens" and it just sucked me in.
14. Shaun
- 01/28/2009 3:00 am CST
I love the Rabbit novels but his short stories are what I can't get enough of. That beautiful prose style is well suited for tight, precise stories and his characters are always so believable. And I'm with Andrew that his critical writing is incredible too. He usually seems to understand the book he's reviewing better than the author. I might as well cancel my subscription to the new yorker now. He was their bread&butter.
15. jen
- 01/28/2009 8:53 am CST
Since I trust your literary judgment, Jared, I just downloaded Rabbit, Run with my one monthly credit at Audible.com. I'm sure listening won't be quite the same as holding the book and looking at the words, but it's the best I can do with my reading these days. My commute keeps me in books.
It could be a while before I get to it, though - I have library books that need listening to before they expire.
Leave a Comment:
Man, that seriously bums me out. Though I've only read the Rabbit novels (and not all of them), I agree with the things you said. I'll probably go to the library later and pick up some of his other stuff.
On a side note, Updike is the ONLY guy I can think of who gave me the chills during an introduction (the one he wrote for Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory).