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  3. Miss Viola Bookworm says

    How sad.

    I was lucky enough once to hear John Updike speak with Kurt Vonnegut at Butler University in Indianapolis. It was definitely one of the highlights of my life in terms of my appreciation for incredible writing and storytelling. Today is definitely a sad day. 🙁

  4. lauren says

    When people ask me my favorite authors, I tell them: Faulkner, Woolf, Joyce, and Updike. And sometimes I put Updike first. He is — was — such a master. And so prolific! He amazed me. I met him once at a lecture in 2001 and had no idea what to say to him when I went up to shake his hand and have my books signed.

    What I said was:
    “You’re John Updike!”

    And he said, “I know.”

    Oy.

    I absolutely love his Rabbit books (of which I have three complete sets on my bookshelf!), and reading them for the first time was a seminal event in my growth as a writer. I’ve always been a character-driven writer, and the Rabbit series represents the pinnacle of character fiction, to me.

  5. BarbS. says

    Toooooo sad! I never liked his work. Then one evening back in the 80s, I was reading the New Yorker and became enthralled by an eloquent, heart-piercing essay about a young guy growing up with psoriasis, a condition he shared with his mom. Yep, it was by John Updike. I’ve been reading his stuff ever since. How I wish his last book had better reviews!

    Wordver: imendeal. Is it “I’m in a deal,” or a name out of The Lord of the Rings?

  6. BarbS. says

    Miss Viola Bookworm,

    I frequently saw Vonnegut strolling around NYC in the East 50-60 streets area. TONS of people noticed him. You couldn’t ignore him, he was so tall! He looked like an elongated, brown-haired Mark Twain with indigestion–but not uninclined to say hello if you made eye contact. 😉

  7. Ink says

    He was a great writer. I took a course on him in grad school, and still think back on it fondly. The course was with my favourite Prof, who also passed away fairly recently. I’ll miss ’em both.

    Bryan

  12. Ulysses says

    I read his “The Centaur” when I was in high school… voluntarily, strangely enough, since it wasn’t part of the curriculum. It was a dense and difficult book, but beautiful.

    Wordver: duckieve
    Defn: an apparatus for filtering ducks by size.

  15. Tom Burchfield says

    Sad indeed; I was never a fan of his fiction, but I always read his articles and essays with great pleasure. Will very much miss seeing his byline in The New Yorker.

  16. lupina says

    Very sad, he was a titan indeed. I also agree on liking his essays best.

    I also want to thank you sincerely for confirming my suspicions about Twitter. I’ve resisted it for exactly the same reasons. My dog and cell-phoning relatives provide all the interruptions (besides regular Net and email) that I need in a day.

  17. Samuel says

    He really could make you gasp with a turn of phrase, an observation.

    “The trimmed large bushes of the groomed yards, the yews and aborvitae and rhododendrons, look alert by night, like jungle creatures come to the waterhole and caught in a camera’s flash.” – Rabbit at Rest

    William Dean Howells spoke of “the novelist’s anxiety to produce an image that is startling and impressive, as well as true”. Startling and impressive and true describe Updike’s prose perfectly.

  20. Nona says

    I saw him at the Chicago Cultural Center during the Printer’s Row Book Fair a few years ago. He was promoting “Terrorist.” He looked really good — a well-spoken, worldly guy at the very top of his game. Life is strange.

    “They are waiting to take us
    into the severed garden. You know how pale and wanton thrillful
    comes death in the strange hour? Unannounced, unplanned for,like a scaring, over-friendly guest
    you’ve brought to bed. Death makes angels of us all, and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens’ claws.

    No more money, no more fancy dress,
    this other kingdom seems the best. Until its other jaw reveals incest, and loose obedience
    to a vegetable law. I will not go. I prefer a feast of friends
    to the giant family.”

    Jim Morrison