John Updike

Today John Updike died at age 77 and that makes me quite sad. Whenever an author dies that I admire, it leaves me feeling unsettled and even though I tell myself that I neither knew them personally nor does this take away from all the great books they have written, this strange feeling of loss stays with me for a while.

I got into Updike back in grad school when a friend suggested the Rabbit books (at that point four, not five) and I devoured them. I am convinced that he is one of the best writers of the 21st century, his lyric craftmanship regarding words is nothing short of magic. Once I start reading it, I cannot stop and I remember reading 'Couples' (1968) in one sitting. I read most of his books translated into German and when I graduated school and finally had enough time to read whatever I wanted, I bought 'Month of Sundays'. I did not make it through the first page, it was way to hard at the time. Interestingly, when we moved to Pennsylvania years later - after a few years in the US - and I was unpacking the books, I stumbled across it and to my surprise had not one issue reading it. It was a very nice moment to be able to bathe in his words so truely.

Just a few days later, we drove to Reading, PA to go shopping in the outlets there. We were driving around and I looked around the town and then I looked up the hill and it hit me like lightning. I yelled out: "This is Rabbit town!" and I did not even know that it was actually true. The atmosphere he had described had been so precisely what I saw there. It just matched up. There were not a lot of moments in my life where literature became so physically real and tangible.

I have not read any Updike lately, but coincidentally just added 'Widows of Eastwick', the follow up to 'Witches of Eastwick' to my to-read-list. In general, I should revisit some of his books as it would be interesting to read them from my changed point of view now that I am smack in the suburban middleclass and middleaged and it is bound to be much more relevant at this point in my life and maybe even a bit more uncomfortable.