John Updike’s works continue to resonate with today’s writers. A recent case in point is Martin Jones, whose musings on “Rabbit Run by John Updike—Walk Don’t Run” was published as an entry on his blog, Writing And So On.
“We float above events, seeing them from the perspective of different characters, sometimes switching viewpoint over the space of a paragraph,” Jones wrote. “Rabbit, Run expresses a desire to transcend ordinary life, while also suggesting—in the manner of Ecclesiastes—that the only meaningful escape available to us lies in ordinary things. In the end, Rabbit, Run does not promise any kind of silly nirvana, but it does suggest a more liberating and interesting way of looking at the non-nirvana in which we spend our days.”
40 years after reading ‘The Poorhouse Fair’ in college, when John Updike died in ’09, I decided to read his oeuvre (prose), beginning with ‘Rabbit, Run.’ It was a long project (little did I know at the time!), but good that I started there because it got me to the heart of complex characters, meanness, and people needing understanding despite their flaws. Overcoming initial doubts, I pushed on and am glad I did. Man of Letters indeed.
Updike’s book reviews and essays opened doors to an endless list of other writers, and an attitude that says, read the book that has been written, not the one you think he or she should have written. For which I’m grateful.