John Updike : a collection of critical essays /
edited by David Thorburn and Howard Eiland.
- ix, 222 pages ; 21 cm
- A Spectrum book. Twentieth century views ; 143 .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction / David Thorburn -- The rabbit novels. An image of precarious life / Richard Gilman ; Rabbit Angstrom's unseen world / Dean Doner ; Rabbit's progress / Richard Locke ; Updike, Malamud, and the fire this time / Robert Alter -- Marriage novels. Updike's American comedies / Joyce Carol Oates ; Play in couples / Howard Eiland ; Post-pill paradise lost : Couples / David Lodge ; A month of Sundays : scarlet letters / George Steiner ; Updike as matchmaker : Marry me / Josephine Hendin -- Olinger novels. The poorhouse fair : a fragile vision of specialness / Joyce Markle ; The centaur : epic paean and pastoral lament / Larry E. Taylor ; A note on character in The centaur / Martin Price ; Shrine and sanctuary : Of the farm / Edward P. Vargo ; Family quarrels in Of the farm / Charles Thomas Samuels -- The coup. Updike in Africa / Robert Towers ; Boy's life / Deborah McGill -- The short stories. The same door : unexpected gifts / Robert Detweiler ; Memory in Pigeon feathers / Arthur Mizener ; Updike's search for liturgy / Michael Novak ; The music school : a place of resonance / Charles Thomas Samuels ; Keeping up with Updike : Bech: a book / Jack Richardson ; At the flashpoint : Museums and women / Rosemary Dinnage ; Disengagement in Museums and women / Richard Todd -- Chronology of important dates -- Notes on the editors and contributors -- Selected bibliography.
A collection of critical essays examining individual texts as well as more general accounts of the religious and sexual themes that run through his fiction.