John Updike was a ruthless revealer of middleclass mediocrity and hypocrisi – a theme that dominated most of his massive production of novels, plays, poetry and articles. He is probably most well known for his Rabbit-series of novels (Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit At Rest and Rabbit Remembered) that also landed him the Pulitzer Prize twice and the novel The Witches of Eastwick which was also adapted for cinema. Finally Mr Updike was a household name in the columns of the prestigious magazine, The New Yorker.
Mr Updike was a rarely gifted writer who had a unique insight into the mechanics of everyday life and everyday people that he used to portray the utterly clueless individual coasting through life without making any choices – strangled by a society that promotes mediocrity as the ultimate life goal. His extremely humorous, yet painfully serious, outlook on contemporary society will be soarly missed and there is no doubt that the literary and intellectual landscape has lost one of its greatest minds.
“The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one’s obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all.”, Mr Updike is quoted for saying. And he truly was an adventurer and an explorer of the human condition on behalf of the great silent majority.
John Updike (1932 - 2009)
Tags: John Updike, Literature
