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John Updike: Just Looking: Essays on Art

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Painting is to Updike what music was to Anthony Burgess: not so much a second love as a parallel infatuation. One always knew it from his prose: from the references to painters and painterly styles, and from the conspicuously visual quality of his description. It is good, then, to have this collection of the writer's thoughts on selected artists and art-works. He is neither too academic nor too personal in his opinions, and speaks with authority but without jargon. Of the longer essays, 'Something Missing' struck me as particularly good - a tentative, penetrating, careful pondering about what it is in John Singer Sargent's work that misses the mark of great art. The shorter pieces offer bite-sized reflections on single paintings or objects: 'Some Rectangles of Blue' discusses an abstract work by Richard Diebenkorn in such a way that one not only feels enlightened about the particular work but about abstract painting generally. As a critic, Updike has a refreshing freedom from academic orthodoxy - 'We are on the verge here of poster art', he reflects on some of Renoir - and as a (verbal) artist himself has licence to entertain as well as instruct with his prose. The book is lavishly illustrated with uncompromising colour reproductions and, of all his books, the most pleasant simply to hold in the hands.

In the 23 essays in JUST LOOKING: ESSAYS ON ART, John Updike is a delightful guide and insightful companion as he reviews art across the centuries. Throughout, Updike's voice is totally engaging, informed but never pedantic, respectful but not reverential. Here is a sample:

o "From his art, we might imagine him [Renoir] a plump, rosy, placid man, but in fact, he was bony-faced, nervous, reactionary, and restless."

o "This painting of Wertheimer tells us what we have been missing in even the more admirable of Sargent's portraits: an at-ease emotional possession of the subject that enables him to concentrate on making a painting. Where no warming familiarity exists, a certain distancing finesse takes over."

o "In 1944, Robert Motherwell wrote of his friend Jackson Pollock, `His principal problem is to discover what his true subject is. And since painting is his thought's medium, the resolution must grow out of the process of his painting itself.' Three years later, in sudden full stride, Pollock could state, `When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing.' Pollock painting is the subject of Pollock's paintings."

o "[Modigliani] ...drank while he painted and liked to complete a canvas in one sitting."

o "As his eyes increasingly dimmed, Degas perforce experimented with roughness of execution, never losing his underlying integrity of drawing."

o "Faces gave [Fairfield] Porter a lot of trouble and his paint thickens as he worries over them."

JUST LOOKING: ESSAYS ON ART is also beautiful book with great reproductions. These tie seamlessly to Updike's commentary and enable the reader to fully appreciate his wonderful insights.

If you can't get to your local museum to visit the Vermeers (thank you, New York), this book is a superb alternative.

I have a copy of this book but there is a binding error.
Pages 109 to 132 are repeated. Are there any other books like this or is this possibly the only one?
How does this affect the value?