Ian Sansom
Rabbit Revealed
According to Adam Begley, John Updike was the ‘poet laureate of American middleness’. Updike was also the laureate of American massiveness – sprawling across genres, enormously prolific, and insatiable in his demand to be loved and lodged, as Begley puts it, ‘in the heart of the American people not just today but tomorrow’. Updike’s strenuous efforts have now been rewarded with the traditional prize: a major scholarly biography.
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‘"I feel", Lowell told Hardwick ... "as if I were pulled apart and thinning into mist, or rather being torn apart and still preferring that state to making a decision."'
Richard Davenport-Hines on the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/yours-unfaithfully-2
'To me, Elmore Leonard is as comforting in extremity as Pym, and as safe, in the last resort, as Wodehouse. The guys with the best lines are going to come out the other side; the dumb fucks are going to get it in the head or chest.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-spoonful-of-elmore
'As we read, we know that in a short time the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and colour television will sweep that age over the balustrade and into the sea, but for now everyone is happy.'
Simon Baker is charmed by Graham Swift's new novel, 'Here We Are'.
http://ow.ly/uDL050ylh80