Jonathan Mirsky
The Word Merchant
Due Considerations: Essays and Criticisms
By John Updike
Hamish Hamilton 703pp £30 order from our bookshop
The best sentence in this collection, as any professional writer will recognise and cheer for its honesty, is the very first: ‘Bills come due; dues must be paid.’ Even John Updike, after seventy-five years, twenty-two novels, dozens of short stories, many poems, and hundreds and hundreds of reviews, needs money. ‘After eight years,’ he adds, ‘I was due for another [sixth] collection of non-fictional prose’ – and there will be a cheque for it. That’s why Updike’s accountant calls what he writes ‘literary products’. Just as there are master plumbers, electricians and welders, Updike is a master writer. Read him here for his many successes and slide over the few pieces written merely for money; they’re pretty obvious.
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