Another great is gone. John Updike did not just stand as one of America's most important novelists; he was a supreme master of the short story and highly regarded essayist, critic, reviewer and poet. He was an indelible part of the New Yorker over the decades and will be missed there more than anywhere else. He won the Pulitzer twice, both for works in his Rabbit series, four novels and a novella, about the decades long adventures of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom in his mid-American life. In fact, Updike will be remembered as the chronicler of mid-America, small town life and the sexual awakening of mundane suburbia over the '60s and '70s. His novel Witches of Eastwick made a pretty decent film and one of the last books he wrote was the sequel The Widows of Eastwick. Witches, like a lot of his work, contributed to the debate over sexuality in the US and though John Updike sparked controversies along the way his work on that issue will cement him as an icon of modern American literature.
John Updike March 18, 1932 - January 27, 2009
Leave a comment