Famed Author John Updike Dies at 76

[Edgewater_Joe]

Source: CNN

Author John Updike, regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific writers in modern American letters, has died, his publicist said. He was 76.

He passed away Tuesday morning after battling lung cancer

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/01/27/obit.updike/index.html

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One of the men who wrote many of the Great American Novels -- the Rabbit series.

Godspeed.

[smoogatz]

1. A great American artist.

RIP, Mr. Updike.

[Sal Minella]

2. Just a few years ago he published a poem bemoaning the tragedy of the fact that he would have to die

leaving nobody else to be so accomplished at being him. I tried to take the poem as bemused pondering, but he seemed truly aghast.

I remember devouring the Rabbit series, and his poems certainly leave him among the American greats.

Edit: to unravel unforgivable syntax.

[driver8]

3. That is strange -- my daughter and I were watching Jeopardy last

night and Updike's "Rabbit" series was mentioned in one of the questions.

I enjoyed his work very much; sorry to hear of his passing.

[Taverner]

4. RIP Mister Updike

Should I read the Rabbit Angstrom series?

[Wickerman]

6. Yes. n/t

[Botany]

13. Yes!

Rabbit @ Rest is a great read.

[marauding liberal]

5. RIP, Mr. Updike.

[4lbs]

7. One of my favorite stories by Updike was "A&P".

n/t

[BlueIris]

15. That's a great story. nt

[EFerrari]

8. Maybe Charlie Rose will play some of his great interviews with Updike.

[DinahMoeHum]

9. "Rabbit" is finally at rest. . .

and the "witches/widows of Eastwick" are in mourning.

Farewell, Mr. Updike - a "Great American Novelist" in my time.

:toast::toast::toast:

[Botany]

12. My thoughts egg zach lee

What a talent!

RIP J. Updike

[InternalDialogue]

10. RIP Mr. Updike.

How weird that, last week on a chance stop by a used book store, the only thing that caught my eye was his collection of criticism and essays "Hanging by the Shore." It's on my side table right now.

He was a giant among a generation of greats.

[sybylla]

11. I love In The Beauty Of The Lillies

It's one most people don't think of when John Updike's name is mentioned.

RIP Mr. Updike

[BlueIris]

16. Indeed, I'd never even heard of that one before now.

Thanks for the rec.

[BlueIris]

14. "Rabbit, Run" was one of the first adult novels I dared to (try to) read.

I was 12. It changed me.

RIP, Mr. Updike.

[DrZeeLit]

17. I'm completely bereft and shocked to lose him. My dissertation covers his works, especially

The Rabbit series.

He will always be my idol, a beacon of "good writing," along with E.B. White.

I'm feeling leaden and fuzzy around the edges, like a half-eaten red lollipop that fell out of my mouth, rolled down my pink angora sweater, and dropped on the white shag carpet. All I can hear is my dull heartbeat and the thud of this thought.

Rabbit at rest, and Updike silenced.
Sad day indeed.

[Bette Noir]

18. RIP

The Rabbit series is a work of art. It haunted me for months after I read it. Still does.

[BeyondGeography]

19. Sad news...Nice video here of Updike on the '08 race

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/10/30/multimedia/1194829741569/a-conversation-with-john-updike.html?hp

[knitter4democracy]

20. Vechnaya pamyat, Mr. Updike.

Memory eternal.

I had to read The Centaur in college, and I fell in love with his writing style then. He was an amazing writer. May his memory be ever eternal.

[mitchum]

21. A Great American Novelist from the days when THAT really meant something

Rest In Peace

[Mike 03]

22. Yes, perfectly stated: "when that meant something." NT

[Mike 03]

23. R.I.P. Dear John. I know you're with Rabbit, Bech and the Witches of Eastwick tonight.

I am going to miss him as much as I miss Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Mailer and Joseph Heller.

He was my favorite or second favorite writer when I finally saw the light as a Junior in High School and began to read for the pure enjoyment of reading. "The World According to Garp" was the first book that hypnotized me, but I saw how much my mother was raving about "Rabbit is Rich" and I somehow managed to pick that book up and start reading it. It was the third novel in the Rabbit series, and it was the book that finally won Updike the Pulitzer.

That is an astonishing book, as are "Rabbit Redux," and the (IMO) vastly underappreciated "Roger's Version," as well as the Bech series, "Witches of Eastwick," and a great many of his non-fiction essays and stabs at literary and art criticism.

But nobody could understand how a seventeen year old could relate to a character like Rabbit, a middle-aged and failed car salesman with a ne'er do well son and a fixation on his friend's wife! I don't blame them. Maybe it is strange. But I simply found these books funny as hell, mesmerizing, and in a touching way very elgiac, or poignant. When I read his work, I felt like I was reading the comic obituary of something important to me, even though it would take me a few years to figure out what this was, and why his books touched me so much.

I actually got spanked by my first fiction teacher who accused me writing "bad John Updike"! He hugely influenced my first convulsive, failed attempts at writing.

His fiction X-rayed the American Middle Class. He understood the failure of the American Dream, and the dark side of suburbia.

Dear John Updike, your fans are thinking of you tonight. What a sad loss. But what a legacy you leave us. And what a tremendous writer you were.