In her review of Daphne Merkin’s The Fame Lunches, “45 wide-ranging essays that straddle the high/low cultural fault line with aplomb,” NPR’s Helen McAlpin writes,

“‘A Tip of the Hat,’ Merkin’s judicious 2009 tribute to John Updike shortly after his death, exemplifies her literary chops. She highlights his remarkable range and attention to detail, his ‘honed, even finicky words,’ but also explains how, after 1990, ‘His vaunted cosmopolitanism began to feel dated.’ She adds, with a dapper flourish: ‘He began to seem like a man who always wore a hat to work.’ Bingo.”

“Lip Gloss, Handbags And Margaret Drabble in ‘The Fame Lunches'”