John Updike Dies At 76

[Tuff Gong]

John Updike Dies At 76

[Suesumba]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

read a lot of his books. funny, clean stories told well.

[seemiyah]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

This month I read my first and only John Updike book, "Brazil" it was interesting....the books description made it seem like a pretty straight forward tale but it was absolutely nothing like that, I don't know if all his books are the same way, as i say, it was interesting.

[Suesumba]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

you should have started with his earlier stuff, like the "Rabbit" stuff. i find that some authors tend to inadvertently satirize themselves as they get along.

[Pepper]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

Him was still alive? Him was only 76?

May he rest in peace. Good writer.

[Gen]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

yes yes, he is the person that got me thinking about my own mortality yessideh

i was thinking that by the time mi squint mi reach 76

[mountaingal]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> read a lot of his books. funny, clean stories told well. </div></div>

i read about anal sex for the first time in a John Updike story. I think it was one of the latter in the Rabbit series. or it may have been a short story.

i've read a lot of updike, including the Witches of Eastwick, which was not really anything like the movie (haven't watched all a di movie, doah). Updike's stories were always full of middle class bourgeois shenanigans - nuff adultery, which at first kind of surprised me.

he was a great writer, am a little shocked at news of his death, tell the truth.

[Suesumba]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

MGee, by &quot;clean&quot; i meant in the neatness of the prose. he's one of those old fashion writers you can actually follow.

the last book i picked up &quot;fall on your knees&quot; which mi waste $23 fi buy, i had to put down half way through because the story meandered in a thousand directions and i couldn't follow it.

[mountaingal]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SueSumba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">MGee, by &quot;clean&quot; i meant in the neatness of the prose. he's one of those old fashion writers you can actually follow.
</div></div>


oh. arite then, lol. i agree.

[seemiyah]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

Nuh mind MGee mi tink she was being facetious miself cause di Brazil book could not stop talk bout di black man 'yam' and what was happening with it, dis lead to a discussion in mi book club bout the difference in merican yam ie. sweet potato and di res of the worl yam, as in real yam.. dem was trying to figure out di analogy so when me show dem a picture of real yam dem say 'ouch' as mi say the book did interesting.

[mountaingal]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: seemiyah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nuh mind MGee mi tink she was being facetious miself cause di Brazil book could not stop talk bout <span style="font-weight: bold">di black man 'yam' </span>and what was happening with it, dis lead to a discussion in mi book club bout the difference in merican yam ie. sweet potato and di res of the worl yam, as in real yam.. dem was trying to figure out di analogy so when me show dem a picture of real yam dem say 'ouch' as mi say the book did interesting. </div></div>

say what now? mi might haffi go read dat book - although the obit in my paper today said it was one of Updike's lesser efforts.

[seemiyah]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

Yes please to read it, an in honor of the man I think it should be JA.com bookclub pick!

<span style="font-weight: bold">BRAZIL</span>



From Library Journal
Allusions to Tristan and Isolde dot Updike's fiction, poetry, and even nonfiction, so it is not surprising to find him reimagining their story as a novel. Surprisingly, he places them in the Brazil of the last three decades. His Tristan is a black beach boy, his Isolde the affluent daughter of a career diplomat; their mutual destiny begins when they meet on a Rio beach. Updike's Brazil, described with his customary scrupulous detail, is alien enough to provide a legendary landscape where the lovers must confront tribulations, endure separations and enslavement, survive deadly adventures, and rely on their love literally as their only sustenance. The rich prose is Updike's characteristic own, but he achieves a tone suggesting that of both the medieval troubadours and the modern Latin American fabulists. Like his earlier novel The Coup ( LJ 10/15/78), Brazil is not really so much a departure for Updike as a confirmation of his versatility. BOMC alternate; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/93.
-Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.

[Magician]

Re: John Updike Dies At 76

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: seemiyah</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Brazil is not really so much a departure for Updike as a confirmation of his versatility.</div></div>

Brazil is his only book I read. And I guess it was a departure, because I skimmed though his rabbit books and none of them motivated me to buy.

I did enjoy Brazil though, and I picked it up as I was planning to go there. After reading it I wanted to go more! And the funny thing is, when you go, you see plenty of Tristans and Isabels in the streets and the place is just like he described it in the book.

RIP Maas Updike.