John Updike R.I.P
Posted January 27, 2009, 18:01 ET Comments Off
Over at NRO Updike’s novels are recalled fondly. I won’t miss them. It wasn’t so much that they dealt with ordinary life–they’re grandiose in theme, compared with Carol Shield’s minimalism. It’s rather that one didn’t see in Updike a moral core of compelling interest. “Yes, that is just how things are, here in Stamford, in 1960.” But why should anyone care about people with a hole in their heart?
Perhaps that is unfair. The obits (nil nisi bonum) talk of Updike’s old-fashioned craftsmanship. Well, yes, but its not just about techne, is it? Put it this way. Suppose that (like me, many years ago), you wondered whether you should move to the United States. And, to satisfy your curiosity, you read Updike, to learn what sort of people these Americans are. Would you not feel the same kind of chill that I did?
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