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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Hugo
John Updike é o Balzac da classe média americana:
http://www.revistabula.com/
http://www.revistabula.com/materia/john-updike-e-o-balzac-da-classe-media-americana-/950
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have heard an anecdote where Updike, eager to meet reclusive genius Thomas Pynchon, passed an invitation to a cocktail party to the great author through his publishers. Pynchon returned a reply “I only drink Ovaltine”. he must have agreed that Updike is a bit overrated.