I’m a big fan of Nabokov, and I found out that Nabokov rated Updike as ‘one of the finest artist in recent years’. So i became interested in updike, but /lit/ seems to dislike him.
>inb4 The JokeOf course he is. One of the greatest prose stylists in American fiction.I prefer his short stories to his novels. Try the Ollinger Stories or The Maples stories
One of the best English stylists of the twentieth century. It's between him and Nabokov at the very least. As for lit not liking him i suspect there are two reasons: First he dared to be very parochial (in other words he didn't write American epics about whales) and paid the price of not being a self styled genius, then second, his style was very careful and precise while lit has trouble noticing anything more subtle then Hemingway his most blunt or Mccarthy at his most flowery. The last reason is maybe because his most famous book (Rabbit Run) is a very early effort and only really starts gong with its sequel . Roger's Version or In the Beauty of the Lilies is a better place to start. Maybe the short stories.
>>23371247>It's between him and Nabokov at the very least.It's Joyce
>>23371247There's a lot to be said for an author having one easily identifiable masterpiece. If I asked what was the best book by eg Nabokov, Melville, Joyce, Pynchon, Flaubert, there is a nice easy answer which almost everyone would agree with.But a writer like Updike (or Roth, James, Balzac) has maybe a half a dozen books of equal quality. So it's much harder to get that critical mass of anons who have all at least read that one book by the author
Brazil by John Updike>Tristão Raposo, a nineteen-year-old black child of the Rio de Janeiro slums, spies Isabel Leme, an eighteen-year-old upper-class white girl, across the hot sands of Copacabana Beach, and presents her with a ring stolen from an American tourist. Their flight into marriage takes them from urban banality to the farthest reaches of Brazil’s wild west, where magic still rules. Privation, violence, captivity and poverty afflict them; his mother curses them, her father strives to separate them, and neither lover is absolutely faithful. Eventually, ancient charms change him to white and her to black. Yet Tristão and Isabel hold on to the belief that each is the other’s fate for life, as they develop in ways they never thought possible.
>>23371285I agree.Though cant say im sorry for it. That was Wallace's and Franzen's main beef with him. (well that and trying to put a best selling competitor down) They were both upset that he didn't write a defining masterpiece but instead worked on at a book a year. Some were better some were worse but they both tried their hand at writing great American novels and thought he should do the same.
>>23371299The Rabbit tetralogy is clearly his most important work. What else is on that level? Also Franzen sucks, who cares what he said.
>>23371304 In the Beauty of the Lilies is a near masterpiece and to a lesser extent so is The Centaur. Rabbit has that first book to get through. It's absolutely fantastic afterwords.
>>23371197>prose stylists>>23371247>the best English stylistsWtf is a "stylist"? Sounds extremely gay.
>>23371190Yes.Start with:The Poorhouse FairOf The FarmThe CentaurProceed to the four Rabbit booksConclude with the two Bechs
>>23371540>Wtf is a "stylist"? Sounds extremely gay.It's faggotese for "he writes le pretty words"
>>23371292He does have an awfully pronounced nose...
>>23371197His poetry gets no respect because it isn't "difficult" and he tends towards light verse but I think this is the best showcase for his talents. His books are extraordinarily beautiful (I don't think there's any competition between him and Nabokov actually, Updike wins easily on style) but it's entirely based on his writing, the plots are not interesting, and the characters are colorful but lack depth (this is intentional, but still). I don't care of Waspy McWasperson the authorial self insert cheats on his wife again (spoiler: he does). But in poetry he doesn't have to do the novelistic stuff, he can just write, and no one does it better imo
>>23371190What's Updike?
Pardon me-Scus-EExcu-*oof**rustling*'scuse me-*shoes scuffing*One side-HEY-Sorry if I could just-*squeezing**grunting*Wh-*oof*AhAhhhhh*heavy panting**hands on knees**stand up**hands on knees again, holding one finger up*Wh-*panting**deep breath*WHAT'S UPDIKE??
>>23373360Not much, what's updike with you?
