Conversations with John Updike

by James Plath (Editor)

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, perhaps, 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. James Plath, a professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University, is editor-publisher of "Clockwatch Review" and director of Hemingway Days Writer's Workshop and Conference in Key West.

302 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lee Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the decades, as the accolades in the intros grow, Updike remains the same affable, semi-charming, intelligent yet not at all pompous, surprisingly moralistic/spiritually minded interview subject, one who chafes at interviewing in general. Wish I read with a pen to underline certain quotations about writing and reviewing that really jumped out. Better than expected, especially the Paris Review interview. Interesting in terms of the contemporary writers he admired -- Cheever, Roth, Bellow, Malamud, and also a sort of reverence for Nabokov -- and how his sex-related writing emerged in part from the spirit of the times among those writers, and in part from On the Road, a sense of "letting go," like Roth's Letting Go. Interesting in terms of his early theological interests and the sense that his novels are a sort of moral argument with readers based around the characters. All the description he's known for too, he sees as almost a semi-mystical acknowledgment of the Lord's miraculous creations, without Zen overtones or anything evangelical, just good ol' Protestant appreciation imbuing everything with deserved attention and some splendor. Also funny about his obsession with President James Buchanan, the 15th president from PA, and Updike's attempt to write about him over his career.

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some better than others . A few a bit repetitive. Even so I found myself becoming lessstandoffish about this author as a person and enjoyed much of his varied commentary on theology and philosophy and the world at large. Trying to inch further into the prolific output of a seemingly iconic Amercan writer I have avoided nearly in toto for some reason.

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selected interviews of John Updike 1959 - 1993. Provides a tremendous amount of information about the man, his world and his works, in his own words. Some of the interviews are just priceless! I recommend it.