Due considerations : essays and criticism

John Updike's Sixth Collection Of Essays And Literary Criticism Opens With A Skeptical Overview Of Literary Biographies, Proceeds To Five Essays On Topics Ranging From China And Small Change To Faith And Late Works, And Takes Up, Under The Heading General Considerations, Books, Poker, Cars, And The American Libido. The Last, Informal Section Of Due Considerations Assembles More Or Less Autobiographical Pieces--reminiscences, Friendly Forewords, Comments On The Author's Own Recent Works, Responses To Probing Questions. In Between, Many Books Are Considered, Some In Introductions--to Such Classics As Walden, The Portrait Of A Lady, And The Mabinogion--and Many More In Reviews, Usually For The New Yorker. Ralph Waldo Emerson And The Five Biblical Books Of Moses Come In For Appraisal, Along With Uncle Tom's Cabin And The Wizard Of Oz. Contemporary American And English Writers--colson Whitehead, E. L. Doctorow, Don Delillo, Norman Rush, William Trevor, A. S. Byatt, Muriel Spark, Ian Mcewan--receive Attentive And Appreciative Reviews, As Do Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood, Gabriel García Márquez, Haruki Murakami, Günter Grass, And Orhan Pamuk. In Factual Waters, Mr. Updike Ponders The Sinking Of The Lusitania And The Unsinkable Career Of Coco Chanel, The Adventures Of Lord Byron And Iris Murdoch, The Sexual Revolution And The Advent Of Female Biblical Scholars, And Biographies Of Robert Frost, Sinclair Lewis, Marcel Proust, And Søren Kierkegaard.--from Publisher's Description. Everything Considered -- On Literary Biography -- Five Essays -- Back From China -- A Sense Of Change -- The Future Of Faith -- Invisible Cathedral -- Late Works -- General Considerations -- A Case For Books -- Looking Back To Now -- The Tried And The Trēowe -- A Layman's Scope -- Against Angelolatry -- Ten Epochal Moments In The American Libido -- Five Great Novels About Loving -- Hydrophobia -- My Life In Poker -- My Life In Cars -- Tributes And Short Takes -- The Academy As It Was And Is: A Talk, With Slides -- West 155th Street -- The New Yorker -- William Shawn -- William Maxwell -- Wright Morris -- Eudora Welty -- Ernest Hemingway -- Ted Williams -- November 22, 1963 -- J.f.k., Jr. -- September 11, 2001 -- Considering Books -- Introductions -- To The Everyman's Library Edition Of The Mabinogion -- To The Blithedale Romance/ Nathaniel Hawthorne -- To Walden/ Henry David Thoreau -- To The Portrait Of A Lady/ Henry James --^ To The Diary Of Adam And Eve And Other Adamic Stories/ Marktwain -- To Seven Men/ Max Beerbohm -- To The Rich Boy/ F. Scott Fitzgerald -- To The Eighth Day/ Thornton Wilder -- To The Golden West: Hollywood Stories/ Daniel Fuchs -- To Karl Shapiro: Selected Poems -- To Elephant House, Or, The Home Of Edward Gorey/ Kevin Mcdermott -- To Christmas At The New Yorker: Stories, Poems, Humor, And Art -- To The German Catalogue Of An Exhibit Of Photographs By Ulrich Mack Of The Ipswich Marshes -- Monuments -- The Great I Am -- Big Dead White Male -- Down The River -- Oz Is Us -- Hide And Seek -- Thurber And White -- Introduction To The Perennial Edition Of Is Sex Necessary? -- Thurber's Art -- Magnum Opus -- Introduction To A New Edition Of The Letters Of E.b. White -- American Fiction -- These Trashy Years -- Coming Home -- Tote That Ephemera -- Dog's Tears -- One-way Street -- Red Loves Rex, Alas -- Angel-tits And Hellmouth -- Mind/body Problems I -- Mixed Messages -- The Great Game Gone --^ A Cloud Of Dust -- English Fiction -- Property And Presumption -- A Same-sex Idyll -- Fairy Tales And Paradigms -- Stonewalling Toffs And Gnomic Blood -- Flesh On Flesh -- Absent Presences -- Mind/body Problems Ii -- Flashy To The Rescue -- In English But Not English -- Home Care -- Love And Loss On Zycron -- Dangerous Into Beautiful -- Both Rough And Tender -- Papery Passions -- Blood And Paint -- A Case Of Deutschfeindlichkeit, Or, All About Abish -- The Story Of Himself -- Pre-gay Gray -- Paradises Lost -- In Other Tongues -- Dying For Love -- The Lone Sailor -- Two's A Crowd -- Mind/body Problems Iii -- Suppressed Atrocities -- Murder Among The Miniaturists -- Arabesques Of Ambivalence -- Extended Performance -- Subconscious Tunnels -- Bitter Bamboo -- Non-fiction -- Groaning Shelves -- Can Eve Be Reprieved? -- Was Sex Necessary? -- Chanel No. 1 -- The Poor Babies -- Drawn To Gypsies -- Survivor/believer -- Twice Collected -- Literary Biography -- Mud And Flames --^ Incommensurability -- The Man In Bed -- Poet On The Fault Line -- No Brakes -- A Natural Writer -- Young Iris -- Art -- One Obstinate Survivor On Another -- Metropolitan Art -- Deceptively Conceptual -- Dürer's Passions -- The Thing Itself -- The Imaginary Builder -- Personal Considerations -- A Tribute To Saul Steinberg -- Introduction To The World Of William Steig -- Introduction To A Section Of The Complete Cartoons Of The New Yorker -- The Would-be Animator -- Introduction To Poor Arnold's Almanac -- Introduction To Chip Kidd: Book One: 1986-2006 -- Foreword To The Catalogue Of My Father's House (will Barnet) -- A Reminiscence Of Hyman Bloom -- Saint Nick: Essay For The Catalogue Of George Nick: A Retrospective -- Foreword To The Mfa Publications Edition Of Just Looking -- Foreword To The Stackpole Books Edition Of Buchanan Dying -- A Special Message For The Franklin Library Edition Of Gertrude And Claudius -- Prefacio To Poemas 1953-1999 -- Foreword To Humor In Fiction --^ Foreword To The Easton Press Edition Of Licks Of Love -- Note On Bech Noir For The Best American Mystery Stories 1999 -- Note On Personal Archeology For The Best American Short Stories 2001 -- Note On The Walk With Elizanne For The Best American Short Stories 2004 -- Comment On Your Lover Just Called, In The Anthology -- This Is My Best -- Recurrent Characters -- An Interview Conducted By Henry Bech -- Foreword To My Own Bibliography -- Three Brits (tina Brown, Frank Kermode, André Deutsch) -- An Account Of My Childhood Reading -- A Response To A Question From The Yale Literary Magazine -- A Response To A Request From Michael Dirda -- A Response To Gq's Request For My Favorite Year Of The Century -- Summer Love -- The Beautiful -- A Response To A Request From A Miss Gordon -- Early Employments And Inklings -- My Philadelphia -- A Response To The Question Why Do I Live In New England? -- A Response To A Request For A Memory Of Harvard Dorm Life --^ Statement For There Is No Other Story: Ethics, Literature, And Theory -- My Contribution To The Npr Series This I Believe. John Updike. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Updike's latest is an endlessly welcoming series of essays鈥攅very nonfiction piece he has published in the past eight years鈥攐ffering Updike's characteristically reasoned perspective on a familiar range of subjects, including Old Masters artwork, literary biography and the history of the New Yorker . The heart of the book is Updike's literary criticism, characterized by a wide lens that summarizes a good portion of an author's output: this collection is invaluable for Updike's generous assessments of contemporaries such as Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez, Orhan Pamuk and Alan Hollinghurst. Updike is still at his most vibrant when sexual politics are close at hand, and his summary undressing of David Allyn's history of the sexual revolution, Make Love, Not War, is brilliant in its mingling of personal and social history. As a collection, this is also notable for its high volume of occasional writing: book introductions, short speeches and responses to magazine requests, no matter how ephemeral, are all gathered to overwhelming effect. It is hard to complain about too much of a good thing in this addition to the formidable Updike collection. 25 illus. (Oct. 29) Copyright 漏 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Updike is one of the few remaining true men of letters, the kind of writer who is equally at home in almost all forms and formats. Following two other staggeringly incisive, broad-ranging collections of his nonfiction prose, Odd Jobs (1991) and More Matter (1999), his latest such compilation is, like its predecessors, an elegant leviathan. Books, primarily, are the raison d'etre for these pieces; most聽are reviews, and most were previously published in Updike's favorite home-away-from-home, the New Yorker. As a critic, Updike has long demonstrated honesty, intelligence, judiciousness, open-mindedness, and never an ounce of superciliousness. For instance, what he writes about Margaret Atwood here is particularly perceptive (especially in his comparison of her to fellow Canadian Alice Munro), and聽his commentary on Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient may come as a surprise:聽that the movie version "elucidates the novel and was the clearer, more unified work." Other essays gathered here are of a more personal nature鈥攖hat is, not geared to book reviewing or to introducing new editions of books. These essays range topically from art and architecture to the author's estimation of his own personal predilections. A lush book to be savored over a long period of time. Hooper, Brad #genre A page-turning collection of essays and literary criticism on topics ranging from books, writers, poker, cars, faith, and the American libidofrom one of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series. "[Updike is] one of the best essayists and critics this country has produced in the last century." The Los Angeles Times Here Updike considers many books, some in introductionsto such classics as Walden, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Mabinogion and many more in reviews, usually for The New Yorker. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the five Biblical books of Moses come in for appraisal, along with Uncle Toms Cabin and The Wizard of Oz . Contemporary American and English writersColson Whitehead, E. L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, Norman Rush, William Trevor, A. S. Byatt, Muriel Spark, Ian McEwanreceive attentive and appreciative reviews, as do Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood, Gabriel Garca Mrquez, Haruki Murakami, Gnter Grass, and Orhan Pamuk. In factual waters, Mr. Updike ponders the sinking of the Lusitania and the unsinkable career of Coco Chanel, the adventures of Lord Byron and Iris Murdoch, the sexual revolution and the advent of female Biblical scholars, and biographies of Robert Frost, Sinclair Lewis, Marcel Proust, and Sren Kierkegaard. Reading Due Considerations is like taking a cruise that calls at many ports with a witty, sensitive, and articulate guide aboarda voyage not to be missed. A new collection of nonfiction writings by the acclaimed novelist and critic features essays on travel, faith, and literature, as he pays tribute to William Shawn, William Maxwell, James Thurber, and E. B. White; examines the writer's existence and role;and discusses topics ranging from Coco Chanel to the sinking of the Lusitania.