If you open up the July 5/12 2013 Special Double Issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine and go to page 96, you’ll see that Updike’s Rabbit quartet was named the  #8 novel of all time.

“‘Rabbit’ Angstrom runs from marriage and responsibility and runs smack into them again in Updike’s masterful chronicle of a man’s four-decade race against the American zeitgeist,” the editors write.

Only F. Scott Fitzgerald and Willa Cather placed higher among American writers, with The Great Gatsby earning 2nd place and My Antonia 6th.

Toni Morrison’s Beloved came in at Number 9, right behind Updike, followed by E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (#10—children’s books, popular books, genre books, and international authors were all considered), William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (#12), Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (#13), E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime (#15), Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (#17), Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (#18), Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (#19), Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove (#20), Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy (#21), Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (#26), Richard Wright’s Native Son (#30), J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (#32), John Irving’s The World According to Garp (#34), Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (#36), and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (#37).

Morrison was the only American writer to place twice, with Song of Solomon coming in at #52. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple made the list at #45, as did Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (#62), Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint (#63), David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (#64), Saul Bellow’s Herzog (#65), and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (#85). Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club barely made the list at 100.

The article, which runs from pages 94-103, generated so many reader complaints that the editors felt compelled to defend their selection process (click here). Topping the list? Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. That Updike is so well thought of by the staff of an entertainment magazine speaks to both the literary merit of the Rabbit novels and their popular appeal.

The Tennessean reported on May 24 that with the blessing of the Updike Estate, Blackbird Theater, of Nashville, Tennessee, will perform a staged adaptation of Roger’s Version in June 2014.

The play will be presented in collaboration with the Lipscomb University Department of Theatre and performed in Shamblin Theater (below) in Bennett Campus Center on the Lipscomb campus. That’s fitting, given the theological content of Updike’s 1986 novel, since Lipscomb is a small private university affiliated with the Churches of Christ . . . with graduate students, as well as undergrads.

In Roger’s Version, theology professor Roger Lambert is challenged by an evangelical grad student who thinks he can prove the existence of God using computer science.

Blackbird artistic director Wes Driver (pictured) will write and direct the play.

Continue reading →

More proof that fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, even when that tree is second generation.

John Updike’s fifth grandchild, Kai Daniels Freyleue (Miranda Updike’s son), is making a film this summer aimed at putting “a different perspective on the anti-bullying movement,” the 19 year old writes. “It’s less about the horrible effects bullying has on the psychology of teens and more about self-defense and building strength, despite bullying.”

The film, Night Shadow, is “about a vigilante named Night Shadow who, much like other masked vigilantes, enacts justice upon people who do wrong. In this case, the target is bullies. Night Shadow defends his weaker peers and is feared by all who pick on others, but do his tactics go too far? Or is he truly a hero?

“The film features Christina Kirkman, a young actress who was voted the Funniest Kid in America back in 2003 and starred in the cast of Nickelodeon’s All That for two years afterwards.” Kai’s band, Out of Focus, will be featured on the soundtrack.

For the curious, you can read more about the project at Indiegogo, a site where indie filmmakers try to raise cash for projects . . . and contributors get something in return, like a signed script ($49+) or their name in the credits ($199+).

You can see the latest works of Miranda Updike, who studied with George Nick and Jo Sandman at Massachusetts College of Art, at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse now through June 27, 2013.

The one-person show is titled “Crowds,” and viewing hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s a federal courthouse, so be sure to bring a picture I.D. to gain admittance to the building at 1 Courthouse Way, Fan Pier, Boston, MA 02210. The number there is (617) 261-2440.

An opening reception will be held Friday, April 26, from 12-2 at the Harbor Park Gallery Space, 1st floor.