Updike

This is an easy to read, very detailed, sympathetic, and insightful biography of Updike’s life and an explanation of his writings. Begley drew upon extensive interviews, including talks with Updike’s mother, friends and acquaintances, and meticulous examinations of much archival material. Despite details, it is not at all ponderous. To the contrary, the book is interesting, enlightening, and enjoyable.
Begley tells about Updike’s early years in Berks County during the depression, how he wanted to be a cartoonist, how his mother was the strong figure in his family and overrode his wishes and those of his father. She was also a writer, although not successful. She was certain that her son would be a great writer and therefore took him, against his wishes, to a somewhat secluded farm. Begley describes Updike’s strange relationship with his parents and how he depicted them in his writings in a somewhat negative fashion, although his parents admitted that he described them correctly.
Begley tells about Updike’s escape from his parents as soon as he was able to drive, his life in Harvard, and his years at The New Yorker, which rejected many of his early writings, for writing for The New Yorker was his early life-time goal. He also tells about his foreign travels and his final home where he remained until he died in 2009.
Most interesting is Begley’s examination of Updike’s stories and his revelation that many incidences are based with very little disguise on Updike’s life, and on his description of Updike, revealing that he was not precisely what he appeared to be.
Readers will find much that will interest them in this bio and will learn much about this famous author.