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Picked-Up Pieces
Best known for his Rabbit Angstrom and Henry Bech novels, John Updike proves his mastery of the short form with this selection.
In this compilation of his non-fiction work, Updike discourses on other authors, the future of the novel, feminism, the nobility of Africa and how to improve ones golf swing. He approaches his subjects wholly, grouping the reviews topically, thus giving the collection continuity and a sense of progression.
Born in 1932, Updike made his literary debut in 1954 when The New Yorker published one of his poems. He worked for The New Yorker as a staff reporter (1955-57), then left to work full time on his poetry, drama, novels and children's books.
519 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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336 people want to read
About the author
John Updike
862 books2,430 followersJohn Hoyer Updike was an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit Remembered). Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having published 22 novels and more than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since the 1950s. His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter-relationships.
He died of lung cancer at age 76.
He died of lung cancer at age 76.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 13, 2024
This collection of Updike non-fiction starts off with a hundred or so pages of “Views,” including speeches, book introductions, and pieces on golf. The majority of the book—roughly eighty percent—is given to “Reviews,” book criticism which run the gamut from Joyce, Proust, and Nabokov to Mailer, Jong, and Bellow. Updike can range here from, at least for this reader, downright challenging (“But, by giving metaphysical dignity to “the subjective,” by showing faith to be not an intellectual development but a movement of the will, by holding out for existential duality against the tide of all the monisms, materialist or mystical or political, that would absorb the individual consciousness, Kierkegaard has given Christianity new life, a handhold, the “Archimedean point.””) to droll (“Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths is certainly one of the best books of 1974 whose title begins with “X.””) Picked-up Pieces ends with an effective “One Big Interview” with the author, cobbled together from excerpts of seven smaller interviews.
I’m up for spending time with almost anything Updike wrote, but I did miss here a real clincher, like “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” or “The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood,” both found in his previous and first collection of non-fiction, 1965’s Assorted Prose, and both essential works of Updikiana.
I’m up for spending time with almost anything Updike wrote, but I did miss here a real clincher, like “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” or “The Dogwood Tree: A Boyhood,” both found in his previous and first collection of non-fiction, 1965’s Assorted Prose, and both essential works of Updikiana.
May 26, 2021
This is a collection of Updike's book reviews and short pieces from 1975. Most of the book reviews are from The New Yorker.
It is a solid collection but not as good as some of his later collections. As he got older he got more reckless and opinionated. Most of these reviews are well balanced evaluations of serious books.
One of the problems is that I never heard of many of the books. He reviewes, for example, three books by African authors named Yambo Ouologeum, Kofi Awoonor and Ezekiel Mphahlele. In my ignorance, I had not heard of any of them and the review does not really give a sense of the books. It, instead, discusses the difficulty of writing literary African literature.
There is a early appreciation of Jorge Luis Borges from 1965. At that point his books were just starting to be widely translated into English. Updike focuses on the contrast between Borges' crystal clear writing and the deep philosophical mysteries he explores. He also correctly notes that "The greatest achievement of his art is in his short stories."
The most brutal piece in the collection is a take down of James Gould Cozzens from 1968. Cozzens was a best selling middle-brow novelist from the thirties through the fifties. He won one Pulitzer Price and was nominated for another. In the late fifties the critic Dwight McDonald wrote a scathing attack on Cozzens. He painted him as a bad writer with silly ideas. Cozzens' career never recovered.
In this review Updike is reviewing Cozzens last novel. It was reviewed poorly and it sold poorly. The review feels like piling on and it doesn't say much that McDonald hadn't said with more style eight years earlier.
Vocabulary words. (Updike has a love of interesting words which he uses judiciously. It doesn't feel like showing off.)
Borges "is attracted by the "oneiric" and hallucinatory quality he finds in North American, German and English writing" "Oneiric" = relating to or suggestive of dreams; dreamy.
"The fin-de-siècle and Edwardian giants, whose reputations are generally "etiolated" excite Borges afresh each time he reads them." "Etiolated" = having lost vigor or substance; feeble.
It is a solid collection but not as good as some of his later collections. As he got older he got more reckless and opinionated. Most of these reviews are well balanced evaluations of serious books.
One of the problems is that I never heard of many of the books. He reviewes, for example, three books by African authors named Yambo Ouologeum, Kofi Awoonor and Ezekiel Mphahlele. In my ignorance, I had not heard of any of them and the review does not really give a sense of the books. It, instead, discusses the difficulty of writing literary African literature.
There is a early appreciation of Jorge Luis Borges from 1965. At that point his books were just starting to be widely translated into English. Updike focuses on the contrast between Borges' crystal clear writing and the deep philosophical mysteries he explores. He also correctly notes that "The greatest achievement of his art is in his short stories."
The most brutal piece in the collection is a take down of James Gould Cozzens from 1968. Cozzens was a best selling middle-brow novelist from the thirties through the fifties. He won one Pulitzer Price and was nominated for another. In the late fifties the critic Dwight McDonald wrote a scathing attack on Cozzens. He painted him as a bad writer with silly ideas. Cozzens' career never recovered.
In this review Updike is reviewing Cozzens last novel. It was reviewed poorly and it sold poorly. The review feels like piling on and it doesn't say much that McDonald hadn't said with more style eight years earlier.
Vocabulary words. (Updike has a love of interesting words which he uses judiciously. It doesn't feel like showing off.)
Borges "is attracted by the "oneiric" and hallucinatory quality he finds in North American, German and English writing" "Oneiric" = relating to or suggestive of dreams; dreamy.
"The fin-de-siècle and Edwardian giants, whose reputations are generally "etiolated" excite Borges afresh each time he reads them." "Etiolated" = having lost vigor or substance; feeble.
October 24, 2021
Still my favourite among Updike's critical prose; worth reading for the essay on Hemingway ('Papa's Sad Testament') alone: 'Rather, a gallant wreck of a novel is paraded as the real thing, as if the public are such fools as to imagine a great writer's ghost is handing down books intact from Heaven.' Other highs include essays on Nabokov, Hamsun and Joyce.
Read
March 4, 2017I always enjoy reading authors engaging in the role of critic. As a side benefit, I get introduced to other authors and books of which I had been unaware through reading these reviews. I can't say I agree with Updike on a lot of things (based on his reviews of books with which I was already familiar), but it was an entertaining collection to peruse.
December 11, 2022
nothing was gonna stop me!!!!! updikemastermind
August 6, 2025
Scattered Thoughts, Sharpened Mind: My Time Inside Picked-Up Pieces by John Updike
Reading Picked-Up Pieces by John Updike felt like rummaging through a drawer in someone else’s study — filled with notes, reflections, critiques, and fragments of brilliance that don’t follow a straight line but somehow still form a whole. It’s not a novel, not even a memoir in the usual sense, but a collection of essays, reviews, speeches, and occasional commentary. And yet, I came away feeling like I knew Updike better than if he had written a traditional autobiography.
What struck me most was the sheer range — literature, religion, politics, even baseball — all filtered through Updike’s meticulous prose and razor-sharp observations. His reviews, particularly of other writers, are not just critiques; they’re miniature essays on the art of writing itself. I didn’t always agree with his judgments, but I always admired the care and clarity with which he made them.
There’s an intimacy to this collection, despite its cerebral nature. I felt like I was sitting across from a man who had spent a lifetime thinking deeply — and generously — about the world and its words. Some essays dazzled me. Others challenged me. A few made me pause, reread, and scribble notes in the margins.
Picked-Up Pieces doesn’t demand to be read in order. It invites you to dip in and out, to find your own path through the scattered reflections. And for me, it wasn’t just a reading experience — it was a quiet, sustained conversation with a writer who knew how to look closely and write honestly.
Reading Picked-Up Pieces by John Updike felt like rummaging through a drawer in someone else’s study — filled with notes, reflections, critiques, and fragments of brilliance that don’t follow a straight line but somehow still form a whole. It’s not a novel, not even a memoir in the usual sense, but a collection of essays, reviews, speeches, and occasional commentary. And yet, I came away feeling like I knew Updike better than if he had written a traditional autobiography.
What struck me most was the sheer range — literature, religion, politics, even baseball — all filtered through Updike’s meticulous prose and razor-sharp observations. His reviews, particularly of other writers, are not just critiques; they’re miniature essays on the art of writing itself. I didn’t always agree with his judgments, but I always admired the care and clarity with which he made them.
There’s an intimacy to this collection, despite its cerebral nature. I felt like I was sitting across from a man who had spent a lifetime thinking deeply — and generously — about the world and its words. Some essays dazzled me. Others challenged me. A few made me pause, reread, and scribble notes in the margins.
Picked-Up Pieces doesn’t demand to be read in order. It invites you to dip in and out, to find your own path through the scattered reflections. And for me, it wasn’t just a reading experience — it was a quiet, sustained conversation with a writer who knew how to look closely and write honestly.
July 31, 2024
I read pretty much all of this book while spending the weekend camping in upstate New York. I kept telling my wife, "he's done it again!" and then telling her some finely wrought Updike sentence about, I don't know, why Proust is so good, or how they could do a better job with erotic coffee table books. I would like to thank Updike for his inexhaustible cheer in this giant books of reviews and essays, and I would like to thank my wife for not stealing the book and throwing it into the camp latrine.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2025
looked up several new words and several new books.... also enjoyed when mister updike got shady
July 19, 2008
The essays in the first half of the book are easily some of the strongest most fascinating work I've read by Updike. The second half is comprised of book reviews, which, while good are a touch tedious to read through in their entirety...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews