John Updike

Start Free Trial

John Updike Criticism

John Updike stands as a towering figure in American literature, renowned for his incisive exploration of human complexities and societal intricacies. His prolific output, including novels, short stories, poetry, and essays, delves into themes of love, lust, and existential challenges, painting vivid pictures of American life with a distinctive literary voice. Central to Updike's oeuvre is his engagement with marriage and infidelity, as seen in novels like Marry Me and The Witches of Eastwick. Critics such as Richard Gilman and Katha Pollitt have scrutinized his portrayals of women as clichéd, while works like Toward the End of Time have been praised by Margaret Atwood for their ambition despite occasional self-indulgence.

Contents

  • Principal Works
  • Updike, John (Vol. 15)
    • Rabbit Underground
    • Reality, Imagination, and Art: The Significance of Updike's 'Best' Story
    • Heroes of the Mundane
    • Updike's People
    • 'Problems'
    • The Master of the Minor
    • Stories Caged in Glass
    • Mastering the Short Story
    • The Fragmented Life
    • Wearing Down
  • Updike, John (Vol. 139)
    • John Updike: Promises, Promises
    • Wicked Witches of the North
    • Bitches and Witches
    • Love Bytes
    • Reading Updike
    • The Witches of Updike
    • ‘I Have Preened, I Have Lived’
    • Citizen Updike
    • John Updike's Prose Style: Definition at the Periphery of Meaning
    • Rabbit Is Rich as a Naturalistic Novel
    • Angst Up to the End
    • Fifty-five and Fading
    • ‘The Adulterous Society’: John Updike's Marry Me
    • The Rabbit Tetralogy: From Solitude to Society to Solitude Again
    • Magnanimous in a Big Way
    • Desire under the Palms
    • Off the Map
    • All His Wives Are Mother
    • Grand Illusion
    • God Goes to the Movies
    • Memento Mori—But First, Carpe Diem
    • Deer John
    • Bullets of Milk
    • Settling Old Scores
  • Updike, John (Hoyer)
    • They Also Serve Who Write Well
    • Faith, Morality, and the Novels of John Updike
    • The Fate of the Traditional Novel: William Faulkner, John Updike
    • Rabbit Returns
    • Rabbit Ruts
    • Updike's Rabbit Trilogy
    • At Home with Obsolescence
    • The Way We Are
    • Updike
    • Easy Come, Easy Go
    • Donald J. Greiner
    • 'Rabbit Knows He Is a Victim but He Fights On
    • Still Running
    • Nobody Is God
  • Updike, John (Vol. 2)
  • Updike, John (Vol. 1)
  • Updike, John (Vol. 3)
  • Updike, John (Vol. 5)
  • Updike, John (Vol. 13)
    • John Updike and the Changing of the Gods
    • Updike in Africa
    • Updike in Africa
    • Updike le Noir
    • Updike Country
    • Joyce Carol Oates
    • Cultural Deformations
    • William McPherson
    • A Marriage of Mixed Blessings
  • Further Reading