Conversations with John Updike

Bys: Fensch, Thomas and Updike, John

Book Overview

John Updike says, "Any act of description is, to some extent, an act of praise, so that even when the event is unpleasant or horrifying or spiritually stunning, the very attempt to describe it is, in some way, part of that Old Testament injunction to give praise. Even though my books strike many people as immoral or morally useless, to me they are really moral investigations of how we live, and harsh because the standards are otherworldly. There was a tradition among my peers for frank and open talk, and I'd always been a rather shy, priggish, unexperienced adolescent. So maybe my revenge as a young adult was to put down all the dirty words that I'd always been a little shy about using."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878057005
• ISBN13: 9780878057009
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating Book

This is a great book for gaining insight into the writing of John Updike. Collected is a series of interviews over a thirty year period. Updike might bemoan being interviewed, but he usually provides a gem everytime. I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful insights into the mind of America's finest writer

This lively collection of short interviews, magazine and newspapers profiles gives us an even deeper picture into Updike's art. But more than peeking inside his head, we also watch him grow from a callow young novelist and short story writer to our nation's most senior man of letters.Like his novels and stories, this interview collection is worth re-reading. Buy it now.