Introduction


John Updike

John Updike is always caught in the middle. Fortunately, that’s how he likes it. By his own admission, Updike has dedicated his career to depicting middle-class people in small-town America. A New England native, Updike’s dissection of Yankee wasps earned him early success and numerous literary awards. Later in life, Updike experimented outside that comfort zone, yielding mixed results and responses. These later works often take well-known stories and reinvent them or retell them from a new perspective. At its best, Updike’s writing celebrates America, even as it depicts the complexities of human relationships. In lesser efforts, Updike has been criticized as indulgent and simplistically self-satisfied. Still, his impressive body of work contains fiction and nonfiction, prose and poetry, short and long form, and children’s stories as well as grown-up sagas.

Essential Facts

  1. Updike’s depiction of small-town America took a whimsical turn in his novel The Witches of Eastwick, later adapted as a film, a short-lived TV show, and a stage musical.
  2. One of Updike’s best-beloved pieces of writing is an essay about legendary Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams called “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”
  3. A departure from his usual work, Updike’s 2000 novel Gertrude and Claudius is a prequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
  4. Updike, the critic, is not afraid of taking on fellow novelists, regardless of their reputation. He has traded words with the likes of Gore Vidal and Tom Wolfe.
  5. Updike died on January 27, 2009, at the age of 76.
 

Recommended Resources

  1. A & P Study Guide (eNotes)
  2. John (Hoyer) A & P Updike Criticism
  3. John Updike - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  4. Rabbit, Run Study Guide (eNotes)
  5. The Witches of Eastwick Summary - John Updike

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. (Charles) Bruce Chatwin Criticism | John Updike
  2. (Jean) Iris Murdoch Criticism | John Updike
  3. (Jean) Iris Murdoch Criticism | John Updike
  4. (Justin) Alex(ander) La Guma Criticism | John Updike
  5. A & P Study Guide (eNotes)
  6. A & P Summary - John Updike
  7. A Month of Sundays Summary - John Updike
  8. A Sandstone Farmhouse Summary - John Updike
  9. Ace in the Hole Summary - John Updike
  10. Anita Brookner Criticism | John Updike （review Date 1 May 1989）
  11. Anne Tyler Criticism | John Updike
  12. Anne Tyler Criticism | John Updike
  13. Arundhati Roy Criticism | John Updike (review Date 23 June 1997)
  14. Barbara Pym Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 26 February 1979)
  15. Barry Hannah Criticism | John Updike
  16. Bech at Bay Review - John Updike
  17. Beryl Bainbridge Criticism | John Updike (review Date 14 October 1996)
  18. Buchanan Dying Summary - John Updike
  19. Carl (Edward) Sagan Criticism | John Updike
  20. Collected Poems, 1953-1993 Review - John Updike
  21. Couples Summary - John Updike
  22. Denis Johnson Criticism | John Updike (review Date 24 July 2000)
  23. Don DeLillo Criticism | John Updike
  24. Emmanuel Carrère Criticism | John Updike (review Date 4 July 1988)
  25. Ex-Basketball Player Summary - John Updike
  26. Günter (Wilhelm) Grass Criticism | John Updike
  27. Gertrude and Claudius Review - John Updike
  28. Harold Pinter Criticism | John Updike
  29. Heinrich (Theodor) Böll Criticism | John Updike
  30. In the Beauty of the Lilies Review - John Updike
  31. In the Beauty of the Lilies Summary - John Updike
  32. In the Beauty of the Lilies Summary / Study Guide
  33. Isak Dinesen Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 23 February 1986)
  34. J(erome) D(avid) Salinger Criticism | John Updike
  35. J. D. Salinger Franny and Zooey Criticism | John Updike (review Date 1961)
  36. James Gould Cozzens Criticism | John Updike (review Date 2 November 1968)
  37. Jean Rhys Criticism | John Updike
  38. John (Hoyer) A & P Updike Criticism
  39. John Cheever Criticism | John Updike
  40. John Collier Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 20 August 1973)
  41. John O'Hara Criticism | John Updike
  42. John Updike - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  43. John Updike and Religion Review - John Updike
  44. John Updike Biography / Profile
  45. John Updike Biography / Profile
  46. John Updike Biography / Profile
  47. John Updike Biography / Profile
  48. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 1)
  49. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 13)
  50. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 139)
  51. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 15)
  52. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 2)
  53. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 3)
  54. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 5)
  55. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 7)
  56. John Updike Criticism (Vol. 9)
  57. José Donoso Criticism | John Updike (review Date 16 August 1993)
  58. José Donoso Criticism | John Updike (review Date June 13, 1988)
  59. Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 1991)
  60. L(ouis) E(dward) Sissman Criticism | John Updike
  61. Leaves Summary - John Updike
  62. Lifeguard Summary - John Updike
  63. Maeve Brennan Criticism | John Updike (review Date October 1969)
  64. Mario Vargas Llosa Criticism | John Updike (review Date 1 October 1990)
  65. Mario Vargas Llosa Criticism | John Updike (review Date 24 August 1987)
  66. Memories of the Ford Administration Review - John Updike
  67. Memories of the Ford Administration Summary / Study Guide
  68. Michel Tournier Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 10 July 1989)
  69. Milan Kundera Criticism | John Updike
  70. Odd Jobs Review - John Updike
  71. Peter Handke Criticism | John Updike (review Date 25 December 1989)
  72. Philip Roth Criticism | John Updike (review Date 15 March 1993)
  73. Pigeon Feathers Summary - John Updike
  74. R(asipuram) K(rishnaswami) Narayan Criticism | John Updike
  75. R(asipuram) K(rishnaswami) Narayan Criticism | John Updike
  76. Rabbit at Rest Review - John Updike
  77. Rabbit at Rest Summary / Study Guide
  78. Rabbit Is Rich Summary / Study Guide
  79. Rabbit Redux Summary / Study Guide
  80. Rabbit, Run Study Guide (eNotes)
  81. Rabbit, Run Summary - John Updike
  82. Roger’s Version Review - John Updike
  83. Roger’s Version Summary - John Updike
  84. Roland Barthes Criticism | John Updike
  85. Roommate: Videohound Movie Retriever
  86. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Criticism | John Updike
  87. S. Review - John Updike
  88. S. Summary / Study Guide
  89. Seek My Face Review - John Updike
  90. Self-Consciousness Review - John Updike
  91. Shusaku Endo Criticism | John Updike
  92. Stanislaw Lem Criticism | John Updike
  93. Sylvia Townsend Warner Criticism | John Updike
  94. Sylvia Townsend Warner Criticism | John Updike (essay Date 1966)
  95. Tadeusz Konwicki Criticism | John Updike
  96. The Afterlife and Other Stories Review - John Updike
  97. The Centaur Review - John Updike
  98. The Centaur Review - John Updike
  99. The Centaur Summary - John Updike
  100. The Coup Summary - John Updike
  101. The Gun Shop Summary - John Updike
  102. The Poorhouse Fair Review - John Updike
  103. The Poorhouse Fair Summary - John Updike
  104. The Rabbit Angstrom Novels Summary - John Updike
  105. The Slump Summary and Study Guide - John Updike
  106. The Stories of Updike Summary - John Updike
  107. The Witches of Eastwick Summary - John Updike
  108. The Witches of Eastwick Summary / Study Guide
  109. The Witches of Eastwick: Videohound Movie Retriever
  110. Tim O'Brien Criticism | John Updike
  111. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth Summary - John Updike
  112. Too Far to Go: Videohound Movie Retriever
  113. Toward the End of Time Review - John Updike
  114. Toward the End of Time Summary and Study Guide - John Updike
  115. Trust Me Review - John Updike
  116. Updike, John Hoyer: The Oxford Companion to English Literature
  117. Updike, John [Hoyer]: The Oxford Companion to American Literature
  118. Ursula K(roeber) Le Guin Criticism | John Updike
  119. V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) Naipaul Criticism | John Updike
  120. Villages Review - John Updike
  121. Vladimir Nabokov Criticism | John Updike
  122. Walter Abish Criticism | John Updike
  123. Walter Briggs Summary - John Updike
  124. William Least Heat Moon Criticism | John Updike
  125. William S(eward) Burroughs Criticism | John Updike
  126. William Trevor Criticism | John Updike
  127. Wole (Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka) Soyinka Criticism | John Updike