But that never puts me off reading a good biography. And Begley has written a good biography.
John Updike was both talented and ordinary. Talented because he had an artist's eye ( he really wanted to be a cartoonist) and ordinary because he was an upper middle class, suburban married man..cocktail parties, get togethers with his neighbors and yes, affairs with his neighbor's wives.
He was also a talented & prolific writer, writing novels, book reviews, art reviews, short stories, essays..all loosely and sometimes not so loosely based on the life he was living.
Author Begley wrote about all this and more. We get a look into his childhood, his college years, his married life through Begley's interviews with Updike family & friends. He wrote novels while he wrote essays, while he wrote reviews…this man Updike was a writer as no other author before or since. And he wrote about life as he knew it and then extended the reach for a more interesting existence. All captured by Begley in the this book.
So what happens now..I will go back and read about Harry Angstrom's further adventures in Rabbitt Redux, Rabbitt is Rich & Rabbitt at Rest. Thank you Adam Begley for showing me the error of my ways :)
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