John Updike's Novels

Updike's books are the most avidly collected of all contemporary American writing so one understands the timeliness of this careful analysis of Updike's novels. Other critical studies of Updike usually stress one aspect of his writing and thus link his fiction to his interest in religion, or pastoral, or adultery, or art. This book avoids the thesis approach and evaluates the novels according to what is revealed by a close reading of the texts. Of special interest i sGreiner's overview of the Rabbit chronical. With an analysis of the reception of each novel and a checklist of the various editions, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the major fiction of one of the few truly important American authors since World War II. It is a natural companion to Greiner's earlier volume, "The Other John Updike: Poems, Stories, Prose, Play."