Volume 8: Number 1 of The John Updike Review was published earlier this month, with editor James Schiff and managing editor Nicola Mason devoting the running “Three Writers on” feature to The Coup. Updike’s 1978 novel is a black comedy narrated by the former leader of a fictional Islamic country in Africa who both embodies and hates all things American in what amounts to a wicked satire of American consumerism. Weighing in are D. Quentin Miller (“The Coup and the Pursuit of Happiness”), Matthew Shipe (“Guilt, American Style, in The Coup“), and Schiff (“Updike’s The Coup as Allegorical Autobiography”).

The articles in this issue of the peer-reviewed journal cover a wide range of topics:

“The ‘Magnificent Meanwhile’: Updike and Scorsese on Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence“—Peter J. Bailey

“Home to Oneself: John Updike and Alice Munro”—Robert Milder

“Olinger Revisited: John Updike Revisiting His Early Stories”—Haruki Takebe

“John Updike, Wallace Stevens, and the Gaiety of Language”—Donald J. Greiner

Rounding out the issue is Laurence W. Mazzeno’s review of The Moderate Imagination: The Political Thought of John Updike and the Decline of New Deal Liberalism, by Yoav Fromer.

The striking cover photo of Updike in Killarney, Ireland is by Richard Purinton.

The John Updike Review is published twice yearly by the University of Cincinnati and The John Updike Society and is included with membership in the society. It is also available electronically and, for institutional subscriptions, through EBSCO.