Ian McEwan is on a book tour promoting his new novel, The Children Act, but consciously or subconsciously he’s been promoting John Updike as well. In a previous interview (JUS post) he mentioned Updike favorably, and in this interview-article he’s quoted as saying,

“Updike at his best is . . . a great observer. He never ceases to surprise and delight me. I love the intelligence of the sentences with that odd little hard-to-define spring . . . an extra beat that quickens my pulse. Who else does that? Shakespeare, Milton, and many, many other poets. Bellow does. Calvino. There’s no end of them, really. But never so copiously as Updike. One can open him at random and find some felicity on the page.”

Here’s the full article:  “Science and Religion Clash in Ian McEwan’s New Novel”