Becoming John Updike: Critical Reception, 1958-2010

Literary Criticism in Perspective

by Laurence W. Mazzeno

When John Updike died in 2009, tributes from the literary establishment were immediate and fulsome. However, no one reading reviews of Updike's work in the late 1960s would have predicted that kind of praise for a man who was known then as a brilliant stylist who had nothing to say. What changed? Why? And what is likely to be his legacy? These are questions that Becoming John Updike pursues by examining the journalistic and academic response to his writings.

272 pages, ebook

First published April 1, 2013