Upbraiding Updike for Wordy “Witches”
“And oh yes,” Jane Smart said in her hasty yet purposeful way, each s seemed the black tip of a just-extinguished match held in playful hurt, as children do, against the skin. “Sukie said a man has bought the Lenox mansion.” John Updike loves the English language. He loves the way words feel when they … Read more
Book 3 – The Witches of Eastwick
John Updike made his name with a book called Rabbit, Run, which told the story of a man who didn’t get women. At all. He didn’t get them so badly that he abandons his wife and toddler son within twenty pages of our meeting him. We go on to read about him not getting women for … Read more
New Book Selected! The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
We have a new book. We’ll start reading The Witches of Eastwick on December 1. About Witches of Eastwick: 1984 novel by John Updike. 320 pp What it’s about After Rabbit, Run, The Witches of Eastwick is arguably John Updike’s second most famous novel. It tells the story of three divorced women living in Rhode Island. They are witches, … Read more
Scheherazade and the Franchise Zombie
A great concept gets slipped into If on a winter’s night a traveler at about halfway through: It is the classic dilemma of the author who is compelled somehow not to finish the story. This is different than ending fatigue, wherein a story is ending but has many, many ending sequences that drag long after … Read more
