Customer Reviews

The John Updike Audio Collection CD

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

John Updike is, in my opinion, amazing in his ability to phrase, in prose, nuance of experience. One of the great, and my favorite, fiction writers.

I can't say I loved them, but these stories are generally very well written, and most of them are interesting enough. Worth a listen. Three and a half stars.

Angst. That is the main feeling that comes through these stories. I found most of them tedious. I guess there is an audience of upper-middle-class urbanites with whom they resonate. Although I was tempted to stop after the first two or three stories, I decided to plod on through the whole collection. At least they are well read in the recording.

I found that one story, "A & P," was one I remembered from freshman English in college, about 1980. It must have been in an anthology we used.

Two stories stood out somewhat from the herd. "The Man Who Loved Extinct Mammals" at least uses a rather novel series of metaphors to convey its urban angst. But what does the guy do for a living? "Pigeon Feathers" is actually rather interesting. A boy yanked from city to country finds God in the patterns of the feathers of a bunch of pigeons his mother has had him kill so they won't soil the interior of the barn with their droppings. He contemplates the feathers as he buries the birds and is inspired by the thought of the one who must be their creator. Not exactly heavy-duty theology, but then again, most people who come to faith ultimately do so through rather ordinary means such as these, not through earth-shattering events and major life crises.

Everyone has such great things to say about Updike. I've tried to read his works before but was so put off by the self-conscious writing that I had to put his books down. So I tried to listen to his stories in audio and it was even worse. I couldn't even pay attention for more than five minutes. In my opinion, he's overrated, and it seems that at the heart of his writing and maybe at the heart of Updike himself lies a shallowness that can't be glossed over. Some say Updike's the best American writer of the last fifty years, but you never get the feeling that you're in the presence of greatness when you read him. With guys like Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, or Hemingway you feel as though you are being bowled over by something mighty. This is due not only to their great writing but to the greatness of their inner lives, which comes out in every line. And so it's not suprising that they've left a body of work that will stand for the ages. Updike, however, always leaves you feeling empty. He writes as though he had greatness within him, but his itty bitty suburban stories do nothing. They don't enliven; they are not a joy to read; they are verbose and stultify to the extreme. If Updike is considered one of America's literary gems then that should speak volumes about the deplorable state of literature in this country. Save your money. Save your sanity. Read something else.

Everyone has such great things to say about Updike. I've tried to read his works before but was so put off by the self-conscious writing that I had to put his books down. So I tried to listen to his stories in audio and it was even worse. I couldn't even pay attention for more than five minutes. In my opinion, he's overrated, and it seems that at the heart of his writing and maybe at the heart of Updike himself lies a shallowness that can't be glossed over. Some say Updike's the best American writer of the last fifty years, but you never get the feeling that you're in the presence of greatness when you read him. With guys like Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, or Hemingway you feel as though you are being bowled over by something mighty. This is due not only to their great writing but to the greatness of their inner lives, which comes out in every line. And so it's not suprising that they've left a body of work that will stand for the ages. Updike, however, always leaves you feeling empty. He writes as though he had greatness within him, but his itty bitty suburban stories do nothing. They don't enliven; they are not a joy to read; they are verbose and stultify to the extreme. If Updike is considered one of America's literary gems then that should speak volumes about the deplorable state of literature in this country. Save your money. Save your sanity. Read something else.