Midnight Plays

Here is the collection of nonfiction pieces that John Updike was compiling when he died in January 2009. It opens with a self-portrait of the writer in winter, a Prospero who, though he fears his most dazzling performances are behind him, reveals himself in every sentence to be in deep conversation with the sources of his magic. It concludes with a moving meditation on a world without religion, without art, and on the difficulties of faith in a disbelieving age. In between are pieces on Peanuts, Mars, and the songs of Cole Porter, a pageant of scenes from early Massachusetts, and a good deal of Updikean table talk. At the heart of the volume are dozens of book reviews from The New Yorker and illustrated art writings from The New York Review of Books. Updike’s criticism is gossip of the highest sort. We will not hear the likes of it again. Midnight Plays anthologizes four plays from four different worlds of story-telling: a Victorian tale of vampires ( Dracula/Sabbat ), a story of Jewish mysticism ( The Dybbuk ), a scatological retelling of the Oedipus myth ( Swellfoot's Tears ), and a tale from the Marquis de Sade (Justine). Their common denominator is their Grand Guignol environment that plays into and pays homage to the Grand Guignol spirit of the past century's morality. Each of the four protagonists—Justine, Swellfoot, Dracula, Channan—plays holy fool who whether he shares or is outraged by that morality—it makes little difference—is brutally victimized by it. The plays explore what is left of heroism, possibly meaningless, certainly helpless, but, paradoxically, still uncompromising... Dracula: Sabbat - The play simmers with nakedness and erotic energy. A work of absolute authenticity—with beauty, dignity, gravity and sensuality, rare to the point of near extinction in any part of our contemporary theater ... It is beautiful in its shivery delight and awed fear of tension and release.—Jack Kroll, Newsweek ... Justine - Katz has taken one of the most horrific tales of human degradation in Western literature and fashioned it into an extraordinary, beautiful theatrical experience.— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ... The Dybbuk - Brio, exaltation, pure and sinister passion exudes from this La Mama production of The Dybbuk, a production which satisfyingly plunges us way over our heads into the story by using a full range of modern devices and insights.— Village Voice , NY... Boson Books also offers Metamorphoses by Leon Katz. For an author bio and photo, and reviews, visit bosonbooks.com. One of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century—and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series—delivers the intimate, generous, insightful, and beautifully written collection he was compiling when he died. This collection of miscellaneous prose opens with a self-portrait of the writer in winter, a Prospero who, though he fears his most dazzling performances are behind him, reveals himself in every sentence to be in deep conversation with the sources of his magic. It concludes with a moving meditation on a modern world robbed of imagination—a world without religion, without art—and on the difficulties of faith in a disbelieving age. In between are previously uncollected stories and poems, a pageant of scenes from seventeenth-century Massachusetts, five late “golf dreams,” and several of Updike's commentaries on his own work. At the heart of the book are his matchless reviews—of John Cheever, Ann Patchett, Toni Morrison, William Maxwell, John le Carré, and essays on Aimee Semple McPherson, Max Factor, and Albert Einstein, among others. Also included are two decades of art criticism—on Chardin, El Greco, Blake, Turner, Van Gogh, Max Ernest, and more. Updike’s criticism is gossip of the highest order, delivered in an intimate and generous voice. A collection of the eloquent, insightful, and beautifully written prose works that Updike was compiling when he died in January 2009, this book opens with a self-portrait of the writer in winter--a Prospero who, though he fears his most dazzling performances are behind him, reveals himself in every sentence to be in deep conversation with the sources of his magic