through the first book Bech: A book, Didnt attempt the second volume, didnt really enjoy, Updike is a such a fine writer that reading this for the love of language and metaphor and the onetwopunch comic sentences is worth buying this book.
Henry Bech is a particular type ofs amps character who doesn't specifically translate into thest century, but he's the kind of fuckup that every family has even the successful fuckup of the family and so he's good to know, fun to be around, and can help you out if you need it.
Some of these collected stories are wonderful satires on travel, the literary scene, writing fiction, and being Jewish in America, but some are a bit thin, and by that they are sendups in a world of sendup publication.
Updike seemed to rattle several of these off, and, if not for his honed comic touch and fine view of American society, these several might fail.
Overall, though, I enjoyed this pastiche of throwback Americana, Basic Bech combines two classic titles Bech: A Book and Bech is Back from one of John Updike's most beloved characters.
Henry Bech, the celebrated author of Travel Light, has been scrutinized, canonized and vilified by reviewers, academics, critics and readers across the world.
Suffering from temporary impotence and notsotemporary writer's block, Bech finds renewed fame when he returns to his native America and Think Big, his alltime blockbuster, hits the shops.
. .
In these classic novels by John Updike, we return to a character as compelling and timeless as Rabbit Angstrom: the inimitable Henry Bech.
Famous for his writer's block, Bech is a Jew adrift in a world of Gentiles, As he roams from one adventure to the next, he views life with a blend of wonder and cynicism that will make you laugh with delight and wince in recognition.
Praise for John Updike:
'Our time's greatest man of letters as brilliant a literary critic and essayist as he was a novelist and shortstory writer.
His death constitutes a loss to our literature that is immeasurable' Philip Roth
'Alert, funny, sensuous, Here is a writer who can do more or less as he likes' Martin Amis
'One of the most protean of American writers.
. . For a writer whose prose can be so lush and hypercharged, he has always been in contact with the material detritus of everyday life' The Times
'He was the ideal son of a platonic union between John Cheever and J.
D. Salinger, with Nabokov attending the christening as fairy godfather' James Wood
John Updike was born inin Shillington, Pennsylvania, He graduated from Harvard College in, and spent a year in Oxford, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, His novels, stories, and nonfiction collections have won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He died in January. Brilliant prose and very very funny, Pure satire of literary fiction, All surface, no soul or at least, the soul is hidden behind many layers of cynicism, John Hoyer Updike was an American writer, Updikes most famous work is his Rabbit series Rabbit, Run Rabbit Redux Rabbit Is Rich Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike, Describing his subject as the American small town, Protestant middle class, Updike is well known for his
careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having publishednovels and than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and childrens books.
Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since thes, His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter relationships, He died of lung cancer at age, John Hoyer Updike was an American writer, Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series Rabbit, Run Rabbit Redux Rabbit Is Rich Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike, Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having publishednovels and than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and children's books.
Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since thes, His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter relationships, He died of lung cancer at age, sitelink.