Book TV After Words: John Updike 

Glad to hear him mention A Month of Sundays at the end. That novel is one of his best, yet unjustly overlooked in his oeuvre.

I loved the Rabbit series. Wonderful insight on American life and beautifully written.

Such a great writer, I was upset to hear of his passing. When you read "The Early Stories" you get a real sense of old fashioned Americana, which we are rapidly losing. The few comments here attest to this. Who had a more passionate view of the act of writing itself? RIP to a wonderful human being.

thank you for this ... enlightening 💌💌

I really enjoyed the talk and would certainly watch another hour and a half. Thanks for uploading this and I regret that the other half is missing

THANKS!

when I become the world's greatest writer I will always remember to never, never, never, never, never, ever, never take phone questions.

Very nice in depth view of a great author, perhaps America's greatest ever writer :)

What a considerate intelligent and modest person considering the fact that he is the greatest American Man-of- Letters of the second half of the twentieth century. He's missed.

He also wrote some of the best short stories in the history of the English language.

The book "Terrorist" sound fascinating. The character mix sounds extremely compelling.

The first novel I read of his was Rabbit is Rich. I was a freshman in college. The first few pages, you could feel the decay of the U. S. in the late 70s. I could literally feel the paint peeling off of everything. All of the settings and characters literally stunk. The only problem I've had with his fiction is that his sentences tend to be dragged out because they are crammed with detail.

I would tell friends that I knew exactly how I wanted to go out....playing full court pickup basketball...getting out on a fast break....receiving the pass...laying it in....and fade to black. The only problem being that I want to be 85 when it happens:-) Imagine my surprise as I finished the Rabbitt series (which began with him stopping to shoot hoops with some kids) and that is how Rabbitt went out.

Updike was the first important author I read, quite by chance, finding Rabbit run in my JHS library. It may be responsible for my subsequent life of reading 'important' books and shunning the more popular fiction of the day.

I can't help thinking that John's mom was instilling in John the seeds to becoming a writer, not so much for herself.

When Mr. Updike thinks and talks about Rabbit he can't help smiling, like John has a secret. Maybe John is more like Rabbit than he would ever let on. 😃👍

Could someone upload Tom Wolfe's appearance on this show? Thanks.

Updike's first comments are bittersweet although the interviewer does not pick it up (see 3:37) An important comment and the book tv interviewer has no idea. A shame. Updike was always thinking about his own death and the interviewer ought to have pursued it.

Something was brewing in Brewer 🤣

What happened to the sound?

For sound: switch the video to 240p.

Every time I hear his voice - that cultured James Mason speech - I think about his graphic sex scenes and get a weird disconnect hearing his voice speaking some of the passages in, say, Rabbit Redux.

@MustachioEdd Fiction is subjective. Although I have admiration for Bellow also, Updike is better than all four put together.

SOMEONE. ANYONE. WHY ISN'T THERE SOUND? HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP.

@ adam carroll, alas! you better believe it! He would probably feel we were living out pure 'fantasy'. (madness)

How are you doing today

John Updike: Read his words and his lips ....? No sound.

After I have heard Professor Philip Roth's opinions on John Updike I get a better idea about Updike.

This would be a democrat /liberal view on life that was reasonable . Now unfortunately he would be considered a righty & conservative. That's how you know politics are going too far 😶

HEEEEEEEELP. THERE'S NO SOOOOOOUUUUUND. SOMEONE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HEEEEEEELP.

his lengthy eyebrows grow to an unusual length, exceeding the norm. maybe it is an emblem, uniquely belonging to the wise, haha

I bet he would hate the current state of America, with Trump and his cronies... ☹️

He was politically naive as all hell; no wonder, [Gore] Vidal could not take him...

With some exceptions (e.g., the Rabbit novels), I've never understood the adulation heaped on Updike. 99% of what he wrote is either pulp fiction or emotionally sterile pastiches of Colette and Hemingway.

how about mark twain? hemingway said he was the best. stephen king. nathaniel hawthorne. poe. there have been many great american writers. krakaur is one of the best ever--even tho he writes nonfiction.

The only books I read are the Almanac and the Encyclopedia. Other than that, besides the Dictionary, America's writing is so fake its not even funny. It doesn't make much sense whatsoever.