John Updike died from cancer this week. He’s someone I always meant to read more of. I remember him being the castaway on Desert Island Discs where he mentioned wondering where his love beads (remember them?) had gone to. I identified with that remark. If you look him up in Google images you’ll see lots of photos of him smiling
I’ve read several of his short stories and I have a copy of Couples which I’ve read four times. I also know someone else who has read Couples several times. I was interested to observe how my attitude to the main character Piet Hanema changed over the years. When I was young, he was exciting and could do no wrong. The last time I read the book a year ago, he’d become a cheat and an egoist, his wife, Angela was much better off without him - the rat! The background to all of this is the assassination of JFK. The book captures that moment when the world held its breath.
He was at the Hay-on-Wye festival in 2004
More from others.
4 comments:
I remember his verse on tropical insects, which stuck in my mind so that I can now quote it thirty years later
They seek the light - it stirs their stark,
Ill-lit imaginations
And win, when stepped on in the dark,
Disgusted exclamations.
...Men...Some have it all and just end up throwing it all away...Happy night sweetie!!hughugs
When I worked the assembly line I used to sneak a copy of "The New Yorker" (among other things) into a parts box and do a couple of cars to get far enough ahead to read a couple of paragraphs...
His pieces were always a treat!
As are your writings...
alan
Dru: So he wrote poetry too! I think that 2009 will be the year I read more of his work.
Donna: True... but not all men.
Alan: I love the New Yorker! I can't afford a subscription, but occasionally some people I know pass me their old copies.
I feel honoured indeed to recieve praise in the same comment as John Updike.
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