Updike links

So many people admire John Updike — one local editors says he should win the Nobel for literature — that I am almost afraid to voice my dissenting opinion that he will one day be viewed as one of the twentieth century’s most overrated authors. “I like middles,” Updike once asserted, whereas I prefer borders.

But let’s not speak ill of this dedicated man of letters now that he’s gone. Following are some of the best Updike links (and a few brief ones) I have found from the first wave of appreciations. Soon, I am sure, we will have more in-depth retrospectives.

• Daniel E. Pritchard : “our consummate man of letters”
• Christopher Lehmann-haupt : “kaleidoscopically gifted “
• Carlin Romano : “pointillist precision “
• Jonathan Jones : the author as art critic
• Henry Allen : “the American writer who has evoked reality brilliantly more often than any other”
• Michiko Kakutani : “this country’s one true all-around man of letters”
• link text : “snippet”
• Steven Winn : “an expansively great writer”
• Josephine Hendin : “no one has done more to explode male freedom as a myth”
• Mary Rourke : a survey of views
• Ian McEwan : “the greatest novelist writing in English at the time of his death”
• Andrew Sullivan : “I do not recall ever reading a bad Updike sentence.” (He obviously hasn’t read Brazil
• George Saunders : “a once-in-a-generation phenomenon”
• James Fallows : “a central cultural figure”
• Jeet Heer : “a very great writer”

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image from John McNab’s photostream

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