Comments on: Why I love the A&P

By: shelaka

shelaka — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:29:47 +0000

I’m a little freaked out. A little while ago, you asked what people were reading, and I mentioned I’d just finished Rabbit at Rest. I had rediscoverd my copies of the first 3 Rabbit novels, and, like Barrett above, I had read them in my early 20’s, probably too young to fully grasp them. But I really liked Updike’s attention to detail of the U.S, in times he wrote about (1960, 1971, 1980, & 1990). He covered quite an arc. I skimmed through them a bit. While looking for reviews on the internets, I found out there was a fourth book, about Rabbit’s waning years. Weird!

By: jags

jags — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:06:48 +0000

Thanks for posting the link to A&P. I’d discounted Updike for so many years and then yesterday, I read that wonderful story as well as the quote Rob posted.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:31:28 +0000

I had just been given Due Considerations (a collection of nonfiction from Updike)for Christmas and resignedly opened it. Updike simultaneously annoyed me and impressed me. While I found some of his views of women, race, and the middle class stagnant and monolithic, he was undoubtedly a very powerful writer on the human condition. We may not like his choice of subject matter at times. I believe it partailly the fact that most of us came from a similar middle class background and are dying to escape it. Although, that version of middle class died out a while back. But the big reason I believe he never acheived the noble was that he wrote about rather unglamorous people and smaller undramatic situations. The fact that he addressed the larger themes that all great writers do probably didn’t sink it for those expecting literary fireworks.

By: Barrett Chase

Barrett Chase — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:05:41 +0000

I read the first three Rabbit books when I was in my early 20s. By the time I got to the third one, I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them. (Well, I could almost appreciate the first one, but not really.)

Now I think I should re-read the first two, since I’m old enough to get it. At least for those two.