Breaking news on MSNBC.com right now. He was 76.
I read Rabbit, Run in high school. I wish he’d been around to see the TV version of Witches of Eastwick.
I thought he was dead a long time ago.
Huh.
I always liked A & P. Although it was written before I was born, the setting seemed familiar to me from my childhood.
I read the entire Rabbit series. Interesting, but a little ‘ick factor’ in one of the later ones where he gets drunk and boffs his daughter in law. I don’t think Rabbit ever recovered from that.
I’ve read nothing by Updike other than the Rabbit stuff. Take that however you wish. :rolleyes:
I have never liked his stuff - and I read a lot of it, and read a bunch of stuff about his stuff - but boy do I respect his contribution to…what? “American Lit” or whatever you would want to call it.
Thank, John.
PS: And if anyone is a big Updike fan, I would recommend U & I by Nicholson Baker, the guy who wrote Vox and The Fermata - U&I is about his obession with Updike (“U”)…
I’ve read a bit – Rabbit, Run and Of the Farm. Not a favorite of mine, but certainly a great writer.
Only Updike novel I ever read was The Centaur, which I enjoyed but found rather perplexing.
One thing I found that helps, like with Updike is that I liked his stuff OK when I listend to a book on tape, but when I tried to read it myself, I didn’t go for it.
Sad to hear, and a bit surprising – he always seemed a healthy guy. Also sad that despite his undoubted talent, I’ve only ever found one book of his that I could enjoy. Gertrude and Claudius was an amazing read. I’ve also read the Rabbit books, Terrorist, Roger’s Version, and In the Beauty of the Lilies, and I can’t recall why I kept giving him chances. There wasn’t a likeable character anywhere in Rabbit or Roger’s Version, and Terrorist was first so utterly predicatable and heavy-handed that it made the end even more ludicrous than it would have been anyway.
So thank you, John, for “A&P”! Rest in Peace.
Rabbit is…dead
Yeah, me too.
My regards to his family and fans.
I’m neither, but I hope his passing was peaceful.
Rabbit, Run is the only one of his that I’ve read thus far.
I’ve read the all of the Rabbit series except for the final “novella,” Remembering Rabbit, and enjoyed it.
A friend of mine who has read other stuff of his tells me that while he liked the Rabbit series too, he could never get into any of his other stuff and thought A Month of Sundays just plain bad.
But RIP, John. And Rabbit.
I was in the kitchen cooking supper when I heard the news from the television in the other room. At first, I thought they said John Irving had died, and I said, “No SHIT?! Ahh, man, that’s terrible.”
When I later found out it was John Updike who’d gotten his ticket punched, all I could muster was, “Really? Ehh…”
Krusty: What’s your name again?
Man: John Updike.
Krusty: Whoa, whoa! I didn’t ask for your life story!