The John Updike Audio Collection CD [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

John Updike (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2003

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, The Early Stories, 1953-1975.

In describing how he wrote these stories in a small, rented, smoke-filled office in Ipswitch, Massachusetts, he says, "I felt that I was packaging something as delicately pervasive as smoke, one box after another, in that room, where my only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me -- to give the mundane its beautiful due."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts. He is the author of fifty-odd previous books, including twenty novels and numerous collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. His fiction has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal.

From AudioFile

One expects the two distinguished actors narrating thiscollection, Edward Herrmann (an AUDIOFILE Golden Voice) and JaneAlexander, to deliver sterling performances, and they do. Herrmann'svoice is strikingly patrician, yet warm; Alexander's is plummy andobservant. The unexpected pleasure is that John Updike, in anunactorly way, manages to keep up with them. Even in his early 70s, heis able to modulate his voice to reveal the spaces amid the dialogueof his characters, the quantum chasms that exist between people. Hereads with care for his words and characters, but without showingoff. The audio collection contains 14 of Updike's most well-knownstories, most of which demonstrate the author's abiding faith in theredemption of human affiliation. One of the most wonderful is"Gesturing," a story that turns Boston's John Hancock building, withits shimmering sky-filled façade, into breathtaking metaphor.E.K.D. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004,Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Caedmon; Unabridged edition (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060577215
• ISBN-13: 978-0060577216
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,501,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, December 26, 2003

By 

Englishboy "englishboy" (West Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The John Updike Audio Collection CD (Audio CD)

The person who gave this audiobook 1 star is on crack. He (or is it she?) doesn't even own it. I do and have listened to it. I've also read the Early Stories in print from which these recording are taken. Updike is an amazing author, and in truth, the stories represented on this collection are among his best, including Pigeon Feathers and A&P. I do wish, however, that they were all read by Updike. There are two other readers in addition to Updike. But this is an enjoyable, tight, mecurial introdution to the work of a master of the short form.

In addition to this CD collection, you might also consider picking up:

Too Far To Go -- a collection of stories about the Maples, a couple on the verge of divorce. One of the Maple stories is included on these CDs. Too Far To Go includes all but one, perhaps two, stories about the Maples. The one story that I'm aware of about the couple (Grandparenting) is included in the Afterlife and was published after Too Far To Go. (BTW, if you know where the other Maples story is located, drop me a note.)

The Complete Henry Bech -- a collection of stories about Henry Bech, which includes the first three Bech books as well as subsequent material. One of the Bech stories is included on this CD collection.

Most people usually point to the Rabbit books as the place to start with the novels. They are excellent. However, Of The Farm, a short novel, is my personal favorite and ties in nicely to some of the Olinger stories included in this audio CD collection.

The stories on this colletion are mostly short. The longest, Pigeon Feathers, runs under an hour. But most are in the 15-25 mintue range. Excellent for short drives or walks.

Pick one up. There are stories on this collection I could listen to over and over again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Crafted Stories and Well Read, November 25, 2007

By 

CJA "CJA" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The John Updike Audio Collection CD (Audio CD)

Updike is at his best when writing short stories, and this collection includes some wonderful works wonderfully read. I especially like Mr. Herrmann's readings. Updike himself reads the best story in the the collection: "A&P." While an author is often not the best reader (remember Sean Connery's line in "Finding Forrester", where the celebrated writer confesses that the only reason for a writer to read his own work is to get laid), Updike reads this particular story very well. It is a funny and very moving story. The last sentence of the story brings the whole work into focus and is about as perfect an ending to a story as I've ever read.

In this and in other stories, Updike does quite a good job of relating the angst of adolescents and young adults. The last story in the collection ("Pigeon Feathers") is excellent at exploring a young adolescent's spiritual crisis. Updike is also good at writing about divorce and advanced martial discord, a neglected topic in literature. "Your Lover is Calling" is a particularly clever and entertaining example.

I don't find Updike to be quite as moving as Salinger or Cheever. He tends to over-intellectualize, and some stories ("Lifeguard") simply fail to engage the reader. Other stories ("Killing", the first in the collection) include situations that don't ring true. But Updike is an excellent craftsman and wonderful writer, and this collection does him justice.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the few writers who is also a great reader, February 11, 2006

By 

Jeffrey Sweet "Jeffrey Sweet" (NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The John Updike Audio Collection CD (Audio CD)

The tone of slightly detached compassion that marks a lot of Updike's fiction is matched by his reading style. It is unhurried, conversational, intimate. It is a pleasure to be in his company for extended periods of time. His novels strike me as wildly uneven (though I always admire the ambition), the short stories have maintained a remarkable level of quality and freshness of observation. It has been something of a privilege to watch his perspective mature over his lifetime. Not that there was anything flip or juvenile about his early stuff, but he has seemed to relax into the impression of easier mastery.