This is a book of critical essays, in the best sense, on some of the works of John Updike, a
twentieth century American novelist,
poet, playwright, critic, and short story writer. It covers the period from the beginning of his career through 1979 (this book was published in 1980, a part of the Modern Literature Monographs series, published by Frederick Ungar Publishing Company of New York). The author provides a chronology of Updike''s life, and then, in her Introduction, educes the themes she elucidates in detail in her discussion of each of the selected novels and a few short stories.
The deepest concern of John Updike is the split between nature and spirit, body and soul, man and woman, faith and sexuality, religion and daily human life, and man''s quest to reunite them -- he succeeds after many years of soulsearching, and incredibly painful and honest examination, in the novel A MONTH OF SUNDAYS. Solution after solution to the dilemmas are explored through the characters in his novels, but he allows no easy answers, no facile solutions, no correct (and hence, lifeless) approaches. There are so many brilliant insights in this book of
criticism, yet it always points us back to the novel or story, and ultimately, that is the sole real task of any work of criticism worth reading.