Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism - Hardcover

Updike, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0307957152 ISBN 13: 9780307957153

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group, 2011

Synopsis

A collection both intimate and generous of the eloquent, insightful, beautifully written prose works that John Updike was compiling when he died in January 2009.

This collection of miscellaneous prose opens with a self-portrait of the writer in winter, a Prospero who, though he fears his most dazzling performances are behind him, reveals himself in every sentence to be in deep conversation with the sources of his magic. It concludes with a moving meditation on a modern world robbed of imagination--a world without religion, without art--and on the difficulties of faith in a disbelieving age. In between are previously uncollected stories and poems, a pageant of scenes from seventeenth-century Massachusetts, five late "golf dreams," and several of Updike's commentaries on his own work. At the heart of the book are his matchless reviews--of John Cheever, Ann Patchett, Toni Morrison, William Maxwell, John le Carré, and essays on Aimee Semple McPherson, Max Factor, and Albert Einstein, among others. Also included are two decades of art criticism--on Chardin, El Greco, Blake, Turner, Van Gogh, Max Ernest, and more.

Updike's criticism is gossip of the highest order, delivered in an intimate and generous voice.

About this title

Review:

For my money . . . the late John Updike was the best American belletrist ever, and Higher Gossip . . . confirms everything I ve believed about his brilliance, his versatility, and his depth. Larry McMurty, Harper s

As [Higher Gossip] reminds us, Updike was that rare creature: an all-around man of letters, a literary decathlete who brought to his criticism an insider s understanding of craft and technique; a first-class appreciator of talent, capable of describing other artists work with nimble, pictorial brilliance; an ebullient observer, who could bring to essays about dinosaurs or golf or even the theory of relativity a contagious, boyish sense of wonder. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

A timely reminder of the graceful companionship that Updike offered to his readers a presence that will be sorely missed. The Christian Science Monitor"

"For my money . . . the late John Updike was the best American belletrist ever, and Higher Gossip . . . confirms everything I've believed about his brilliance, his versatility, and his depth."--Larry McMurty, Harper's

"As [Higher Gossip] reminds us, Updike was that rare creature: an all-around man of letters, a literary decathlete who brought to his criticism an insider's understanding of craft and technique; a first-class appreciator of talent, capable of describing other artists' work with nimble, pictorial brilliance; an ebullient observer, who could bring to essays about dinosaurs or golf or even the theory of relativity a contagious, boyish sense of wonder."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A timely reminder of the graceful companionship that Updike offered to his readers--a presence that will be sorely missed."--The Christian Science Monitor

About the Author:

John Updike was the author of more than sixty books, including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. His novels have been honored with the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, and the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hugging the Shore, an earlier collection of essays and reviews, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He died in January 2009.

Christopher Carduff, the editor of this volume, is a member of the staff of The Library of America.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0307957152
• ISBN 13: 9780307957153
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528
• Editor: Carduff Christopher