R.I.P. John Updike, 1932-2009

I'm sad about this passing of one of Amercia's great literary voices. I'm a bit sentimental.

I began reading John Updike after finding a bound edition containing the first three "Rabbit" books in the early nineties at Treehorn Books on Santa Rosa, California. In all his mistakes and thoughts and sometimes wrong ideas, I connected with Harry Angstrom, Updike's misguided protagonist.

The stream of conscious third-person writing made me think, at least while I read it, that maybe I wasn't so different from others--he thought in a way that I could understand, had many of the same limitations I had, but kept so much locked in the privacy or secrecy of his mind and away from others. He wanted to connect but didn't know how.

As I've matured, I've read the four novels (I later found Rabbit at Rest and have just discovered there is a fifth book, Rabbit Remembered) again and again. Rabbit showed me mistakes I didn't want to repeat, but also a friend who understood me. Somewhere on my desk is a photocopy of "A&P", a short story about adolescence.

The appeal for me of John Updike's work is in its direct honesty, its willingness to express the truthful wrongness of us at our worst and best, and the delicious flow of his prose.

I never knew him in person, but I will miss knowing he is somewhere writing. I am grateful for his work and will always carry a piece of Rabbit with me.