The New York Times Book Review - Orhan Pamuk
…[a] brilliant…well-researched, considerate and almost affectionate biography…in a letter from Harvard, Updike "wrote to his mother about what was missing from the American literary scene: 'We need a writer who desires both to be great and to be popular.'" Begley's highly readable biography shows us how the tension between these two essential desires both formed and limited Updike's life and his immense literary achievement…The greatest pleasure in reading this biography is in discovering—essay by essay, story by story, novel by novel…the daily vicissitudes that lay behind Updike's ability to inhabit multiple identities, and the sheer range of his versatile pen.
Publishers Weekly
02/17/2014
This deferential but insightful biography takes its place among the go-to sources on the life of the Pennsylvania-born “poet laureate of American middleness,” who died in 2009. Without always matching the laborious detail of Jack De Bellis’s John Updike’s Early Years (2013), this comprehensive account from literary critic Begley draws on deep research and interviews with the author and his circle to chart his early influences—in particular his ambitious mother, Linda—and rigorously explore the heavily autobiographical dimensions of his fiction and poetry. A homeward-looking yearning and an unswerving ambition run throughout Updike’s life and career. In addition to his own astute observations, Begley (whose father was a Harvard classmate of Updike’s) marshals revealing commentary by Updike’s contemporaries, like college roommate and future historian Christopher Lasch, who discuss the hesitations and insecurities hounding him. Begley devotes hefty chapters to Updike’s long relationship with the New Yorker, as well as the fame-making, family-growing Ipswich years from whence came Rabbit, Run. The book limns the conflicted emotional makeup beneath its subject’s polished public persona, detailing his tenuous relationship with the WASP establishment, his restless sexual infidelities, and his alienation from 1960s counterculture. At the same time, Updike is revealed to have no great interior tumult on a par with that of his troubled alter ego, Harry Angstrom. Indeed, readers will see in Begley’s Updike an exceptionally gifted, but in many ways mainstream, American man. 16-page b&w photo insert. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Literary Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A brilliant biography. . . . A delightfully rich book. . . . Highly readable. . . . The joys of Updike are based on discovering the autobiographical content of the tens of thousands of details that populate Updike’s vast fictional universe.” — Orhan Pamuk, The New York Times Book Review
“A superb achievement. . . . A book that, in its evocation of a brilliant but flawed personality, conjured via the skillful deployment of just-so details and a subtle hint of haunting existential grace, is in some ways as rewarding as Updike’s best fiction.” — Scott Stossel, The Boston Globe
“A beautifully written, richly detailed, and warmly sympathetic portrait of a great American writer.” — Joyce Carol Oates
“Adam Begley’s Updike is a model of what a literary biography should be: rich with penetrating insights not only about the life but also about the work. It will enthrall long-time Updike fans and help create generations of new ones.” — Francine Prose
“Adam Begley’s brilliant evocation of our own literary giant should be required reading for Americans; Updike illumines a particular era with John Updike’s own ferocity and tenderness.” — Jayne Anne Phillips
“Adam Begley’s careful and considerate biography illuminates all the right things about Updike, whose dramas were lived both privately and publicly. It’s a social history in which one man’s heart, mind, and talent came to resonate for an entire society.” — Ann Beattie
“’You have to give it magic,’ John Updike explained of the stuff on the page; Adam Begley has done him proud, offering up Updike the man and Updike the writer in an exuberant, stunningly choreographed pas de deux.” — Stacy Schiff
“Adam Begley tells the story of John Updike’s life in art with brilliant tautness, as if he were writing a novel. He has rendered a portrait of the writer that shimmers with truth. This is literary biography at its highest level of excellence.” — Janet Malcolm
“On the evidence of this judicious new biography, John Updike recorded in his fiction the most painful events in his life. . . . Begley demonstrates that Updike was more complicated than the twinkly public persona he created for himself.” — Robert Wilson, The American Scholar
“Begley seamlessly weaves biography and critical analysis throughout his book, much as Updike himself blurred autobiography and fiction. Updike is a monumental treatment of a towering American writer.” — The New York Observer
“As a biographer, Begley has a great many strengths — concision, eloquence, an eagle eye — and few of the usual shortcomings.” — The Wall Street Journal
“Not only has Begley written a convincing interpretative biography, one characterized by suavity, wit, and independent judgment throughout, he has also produced a major work of Updike criticism. . . . Displaying total command of his material, Begley does his author proud.” — Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“Honorable. . . . Updike’s exquisite words flowed, some felt, too freely and too amiably. . . . It’s one of the achievements of Begley’s book that it so acutely demonstrates how it all, in fact, didn’t come so easily. . . . Begley is a gifted literary critic.” — Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“The two-time Pulitzer winner couldn’t have hoped for a biography more respectful — or more critically attuned to his work — than this one. Updike is gracefully written. . . . It contains revealing tales about Updike’s work habits and publishing relationships that haven’t been told before.” — The San Francisco Chronicle
“An exemplary biography, oceanically researched, full of insights. . . . Begley is even-handed in his judgments and is a fine writer himself, his supple and cadenced prose sometimes matching his subject’s.” — The Sunday Times (London)
“An insightful, compelling, discreet, and admirable biography. . . . In synthesizing a substantial amount of material through clear, intelligent prose, Begley does what I never thought possible: he writes a biography I wished were longer.” — The Christian Science Monitor
“This is a generous tribute to an amusing and brilliant man. . . . Begley is a perceptive reader, illuminating the different alter egos who populate Updike’s fiction.” — The Financial Times
“Though Adam Begley’s biography is the first on the writer, it’s hard to see how it will be bettered. Thoroughly researched, written with intelligence, sympathy, and grace, it is a model of first-rate literary biography. . . . A complex, intimate portrait.” — Dan Cryer, Newsday
“Adam Begley has written an exemplary biography. . . . Respectful and sympathetic. . . . Any Updike fan will find it rewarding, as indeed will anyone who has enjoyed his work and any reader with an interest in modern American letters.” — The Guardian
“Begley is so much in command of his subject. . . . He has located the man behind the giant oeuvre.” — Sam Tanenhaus, Prospect
“A master storyteller comes to affably charming life in Begley’s incisive biography. . . . Begley finds the truest reflection of the man in his work.” — Vogue
“Fabulous. . . . Updike fans will enjoy Begley’s marvelous biography, which is as much about the man as the writer.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Terrific. . . . Begley’s book blends biography with a brilliant close read of Updike’s work. . . . As insightful on the work as the life, it is a complicated and fascinating portrait of one of the great literary lives of the second half of the 20th century.” — Salon
“A hefty, thorough biography. . . . Begley does an impressive, conscientious job of marshaling evidence of Updike’s many contradictions.” — Jonathan Dee, Harper's
“An insightful and meticulously researched book. . . . A sustained, very fine work of literary criticism.” — The New Republic
“A highly literate illumination of a supremely literate human being.” — Louis Menand, The New Yorker
“Begley is quiet, careful, self-effacing, and steady. . . . He amply shows us the strangeness and contradictions under the affable mask.” — Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books
“A sympathetic and thorough biography. . . . The more I read about Updike, the more I wanted to go back and read Updike. — USA Today
“A wonderful, wise biography, judicious and intimately revealing, and does full justice to the highly complex individual that was Updike.” — William Boyd, Daily Mail's Best Books of the Year
Francine Prose
Adam Begley’s Updike is a model of what a literary biography should be: rich with penetrating insights not only about the life but also about the work. It will enthrall long-time Updike fans and help create generations of new ones.
Joyce Carol Oates
A beautifully written, richly detailed, and warmly sympathetic portrait of a great American writer.
Orhan Pamuk
A brilliant biography. . . . A delightfully rich book. . . . Highly readable. . . . The joys of Updike are based on discovering the autobiographical content of the tens of thousands of details that populate Updike’s vast fictional universe.
Ann Beattie
Adam Begley’s careful and considerate biography illuminates all the right things about Updike, whose dramas were lived both privately and publicly. It’s a social history in which one man’s heart, mind, and talent came to resonate for an entire society.
Robert Wilson
On the evidence of this judicious new biography, John Updike recorded in his fiction the most painful events in his life. . . . Begley demonstrates that Updike was more complicated than the twinkly public persona he created for himself.
Scott Stossel
A superb achievement. . . . A book that, in its evocation of a brilliant but flawed personality, conjured via the skillful deployment of just-so details and a subtle hint of haunting existential grace, is in some ways as rewarding as Updike’s best fiction.
Janet Malcolm
Adam Begley tells the story of John Updike’s life in art with brilliant tautness, as if he were writing a novel. He has rendered a portrait of the writer that shimmers with truth. This is literary biography at its highest level of excellence.
Stacy Schiff
’You have to give it magic,’ John Updike explained of the stuff on the page; Adam Begley has done him proud, offering up Updike the man and Updike the writer in an exuberant, stunningly choreographed pas de deux.
The New York Observer
Begley seamlessly weaves biography and critical analysis throughout his book, much as Updike himself blurred autobiography and fiction. Updike is a monumental treatment of a towering American writer.
Jayne Anne Phillips
Adam Begley’s brilliant evocation of our own literary giant should be required reading for Americans; Updike illumines a particular era with John Updike’s own ferocity and tenderness.
Salon
Terrific. . . . Begley’s book blends biography with a brilliant close read of Updike’s work. . . . As insightful on the work as the life, it is a complicated and fascinating portrait of one of the great literary lives of the second half of the 20th century.
The Financial Times
This is a generous tribute to an amusing and brilliant man. . . . Begley is a perceptive reader, illuminating the different alter egos who populate Updike’s fiction.
The Sunday Times (London)
An exemplary biography, oceanically researched, full of insights. . . . Begley is even-handed in his judgments and is a fine writer himself, his supple and cadenced prose sometimes matching his subject’s.
Entertainment Weekly
Fabulous. . . . Updike fans will enjoy Begley’s marvelous biography, which is as much about the man as the writer.
The New Republic
An insightful and meticulously researched book. . . . A sustained, very fine work of literary criticism.
Dwight Garner
Honorable. . . . Updike’s exquisite words flowed, some felt, too freely and too amiably. . . . It’s one of the achievements of Begley’s book that it so acutely demonstrates how it all, in fact, didn’t come so easily. . . . Begley is a gifted literary critic.
USA Today
A sympathetic and thorough biography. . . . The more I read about Updike, the more I wanted to go back and read Updike.
The Wall Street Journal
As a biographer, Begley has a great many strengths — concision, eloquence, an eagle eye — and few of the usual shortcomings.
Louis Menand
A highly literate illumination of a supremely literate human being.
Jonathan Dee
A hefty, thorough biography. . . . Begley does an impressive, conscientious job of marshaling evidence of Updike’s many contradictions.
The San Francisco Chronicle
The two-time Pulitzer winner couldn’t have hoped for a biography more respectful — or more critically attuned to his work — than this one. Updike is gracefully written. . . . It contains revealing tales about Updike’s work habits and publishing relationships that haven’t been told before.
Hermione Lee
Begley is quiet, careful, self-effacing, and steady. . . . He amply shows us the strangeness and contradictions under the affable mask.
William Boyd
A wonderful, wise biography, judicious and intimately revealing, and does full justice to the highly complex individual that was Updike.
Vogue
A master storyteller comes to affably charming life in Begley’s incisive biography. . . . Begley finds the truest reflection of the man in his work.
Dan Cryer
Though Adam Begley’s biography is the first on the writer, it’s hard to see how it will be bettered. Thoroughly researched, written with intelligence, sympathy, and grace, it is a model of first-rate literary biography. . . . A complex, intimate portrait.
The Guardian
Adam Begley has written an exemplary biography. . . . Respectful and sympathetic. . . . Any Updike fan will find it rewarding, as indeed will anyone who has enjoyed his work and any reader with an interest in modern American letters.
Michael Dirda
Not only has Begley written a convincing interpretative biography, one characterized by suavity, wit, and independent judgment throughout, he has also produced a major work of Updike criticism. . . . Displaying total command of his material, Begley does his author proud.
Sam Tanenhaus
Begley is so much in command of his subject. . . . He has located the man behind the giant oeuvre.
The Christian Science Monitor
An insightful, compelling, discreet, and admirable biography. . . . In synthesizing a substantial amount of material through clear, intelligent prose, Begley does what I never thought possible: he writes a biography I wished were longer.
USA Today
A sympathetic and thorough biography. . . . The more I read about Updike, the more I wanted to go back and read Updike.
JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile
Narrator Grover Gardner gets a marathon workout as he delivers this comprehensive biography of the celebrated novelist, poet, and essayist John Updike. Gardner envelops Begley’s heartfelt prose with warm tones and gentle pauses that let the major turning points in Updike’s career sink into the listener’s ear. Begley discusses, for example, the importance of Updike’s first appearance in THE NEW YORKER and its place in the securing of his ambitions. He also shows the many ways that Updike interpreted the true events of his life in his fiction. As Begley allows his affection for the novelist to bleed through, Gardner ensures that listeners are entertained and enlightened by this account of one of the twentieth century’s finest literary talents. R.O. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-01-20
A sympathetic, full-meal-deal biography—life, literary works, reputation—of John Updike (1932–2009), who was considered by many to be the most talented of his generation. Former New York Observer books editor Begley (Certitude: A Profusely Illustrated Guide to Blockheads and Bullheads, Past and Present, 2009, etc.) erects his formidable edifice on a sturdy foundation of research and convention. He interviewed the relevant relatives and friends, trod the ground in Pennsylvania (Updike's state of birth and youth), Massachusetts and elsewhere, and read all the works of Updike's most prolific career. Begley begins in Berks County, Pa., and shows us Updike's town-and-country boyhood, a time filled with reading and drawing and observing. His father was a public school teacher (see Updike's The Centaur); his mother, a homemaker and writer (she published in the New Yorker—like her son and grandson—and wrote novels). We see Updike's stellar schoolboy academic record and his matriculation at Harvard, where he earned a spot on the Harvard Lampoon staff and where he displayed the astonishing work ethic, creativity and precocity that would—while still in his 20s—earn him a staff position on the New Yorker and a lifelong publishing relationship with Alfred A. Knopf. Begley also shows us how Updike repeatedly mined his own experiences, populating his fiction with people like those in his own social circle (including his wives and many lovers). Perhaps too frequently, the author summarizes and explicates numerous of his works (including Updike's poems and essays) and throughout displays a patent admiration, even affection, for his subject. He suggests that Updike's conservative social positions (on civil rights, on Vietnam) were sometimes born of a desire to be contrarian rather than of actual conviction. Thorough, intelligent and respectful, but more bite would have released more of Updike's blood.
