Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The last time I was in New City I listened to an interview with John Updike on part of the ride home. He was charmingly self-deprecating, but sincere about how seriously he tried to work at his craft. At one point he joked about the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy saying that American literature is "too isolated, too insular", and he talked about how he had tried to break out of that mold in some of his work. He talked about his forthcoming collection of stories; now it will be his last. A game he might have enjoyed will be to count the number of times the work "lapidary" appears in his obits. 76 seems too young, but there is plenty of Updike out there that I haven't yet gotten to.
// posted by Bill @ 1:36 PM 
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