Book Review: Independence Day – Richard Ford I’ve just completed Richard Ford’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Independence Day’, and I have to admit it left me a bit cold. The novel forms the middle part of a trilogy of large-ish books (beginning with ‘The Sportswriter’ and ending with ‘The Lay of the Land’) narrated by a notionally [...]
‘Realty’ and realism: the inner life of Frank Bascombe
March 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Fiction
Tags:Frank Bascombe·John Updike·Phil Hogan·Pulitzer Prize·Rabbit Angstrom·Richard Ford·small town America·The Guardian
Book Review: John Updike – Rabbit Redux
September 2nd, 2008 · No Comments · Fiction
Apocalypse redux! 8.5/10 Following on from my post about John Updike’s seminal ‘Rabbit, Run‘, ‘Rabbit Redux‘ is the second in Updike’s quartet of novels chronicling the life and times of America as seen through the eyes of everyman Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Written – as with the other three – at the tale end of one [...]
Tags:1960s·America·Black Power·civil rights·free love·freedom·Harry Angstrom·John Updike·Rabbit·suburbia·USA·Vietnam
John Updike – Rabbit, Run
August 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Fiction
“He’ll get by without his rabbit pie … run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run” 9/10 ‘Rabbit, Run‘ is the first in a quartet of novels by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist that revolve around the varying fortunes of a former high school Basketball champion Rabbit Angstrom. All four novels were written at the end of [...]
Tags:1950s·1950s America·basketball·Death·John Updike·pregnancy·Rabbit Angstrom·small town America·society·USA
John Updike – Brazil
October 23rd, 2006 · No Comments · Fiction
South American Heart of Darkness 7/10 Brazil is the epic love story of Tristao and Isabel, a young black criminal from the Rio favellas and the rich white daughther of a powerful politician. Meeting on the dazzling sand and surf of Copacabana Beach, there’s is a tragic romance that crosses the racial and economic boundaries [...]
Tags:Brazil·John Updike