In a review of Adam Begley’s Updike, William Deresiewicz finds that writer’s short story, “Pigeon Feathers,” offers telling insight into his religious beliefs. In the story, the character David is asked by his mother to kill the pigeons roosting in their barn, which gives him “the sensation of a creator.” How Deresiewicz describes what happens next: It … Continue reading The Soul Of John Updike
Adam Begley’s biography Updike continues to stir debate about its subject’s artistic merits. For the defense, David Baddiel: He is the great poet of the ordinary life, of domesticity, of life as most people live it – as opposed to Saul Bellow, who writes mainly about life as deep-thinking intellectuals, academics and writers live it (and who was … Continue reading Updike Upclose, Ctd
In a review of Adam Begley’s new biography Updike, Hermione Lee describes the essence of the late author’s fiction: In one of his last stories, “My Father’s Tears,” he quotes from Emerson: “Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.” Emerson is there too at the front of Self-Consciousness: “We are persuaded that … Continue reading Updike Upclose, Ctd
In an excerpt from his new biography of the late writer, Adam Begley suggests the reason why John Updike’s fiction could draw liberally from his own experiences: Part of what allowed Updike the freedom to indulge his autobiographical impulse was his relationship with his mother, the elderly widow who tugged at Ecenbarger’s sleeve in the … Continue reading Updike Upclose
Harold Bloom once snarkily quipped that John Updike was “a minor novelist with a major style.” After reading Adam Begley’s biography, Updike, Daniel Ross Goodman seems to agree, noting the writer’s “lack of intense passion.” He speculates the deficit “was because Updike did not experience the deep suffering of many other literary geniuses”: Updike was not forced to labor … Continue reading The Un-tortured Artist
Stephen H. Webb criticizes John Updike’s biographer Adam Begley for not “getting to the heart of what he most cherished in his personal experiences” – especially the novelist’s attachment to Christianity: The reason why critics as perceptive as Begley marginalize Updike’s religious faith has to do with the content of his theological convictions, not the … Continue reading The Flesh Made Word
by Matthew Sitman The last few weeks we have tracked the responses to Adam Begley’s Updike, the new biography of the late novelist and critic, who also was an accomplished poet and short story writer. Today’s featured story is “The Varieties of Religious Experience,” which Updike published in The Atlantic just over a year after the September 11th terrorist … Continue reading A Short Story For Saturday
The Dish 