Updike, John (Vol. 9) - Updike, John 1932–

Updike, John 1932–

Updike is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, critic, and writer of works for children. Throughout his writing, which is characterized by subtlety of perception and exactness of prose, one can trace Updike's mythic and Biblical symbolism. His allusiveness provides a kind of substructure to his works in which he explores and explains human nature. Death and sex are focal concerns. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)

John Updike's novels show a man's marriage as his fate. No one has done more to explode male freedom as a myth than Updike in novels of American men whose lives, from cradle to grave, are structured by women. His characters are the philanderers who seem freewheeling until the press of Updike's intelligence reveals them as captives in that velvet glove, the female presence. Often accused of being narrow in his concerns, Updike may in fact...

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