John Updike revisited

the long version

In the first comprehensive study of Updike's oeuvre to appear in a decade, James Schiff takes on the enormous task of understanding this versatile and brilliant writer. In this up-to-date overview, Schiff provides commentary on recent individual works that have yet to receive critical treatment: Memories of the Ford Administration, Brazil, and In the Beauty of the Lilies. He treats individual works and aspects of Updike's oeuvre that have been partially or entirely ignored: his critical, nonfictional prose, and works like The Poorhouse Fair, Buchanan Dying, and The Witches of Eastwick. He offers complete readings of the two multivolume works: the Rabbit tetralogy and the Scarlet Letter trilogy. Finally, he attempts to see and understand the entire Updike, the versatile man of letters and author of nearly 50 volumes.