Lorrie Moore, on Updike’s passing:
The news that he died in a hospice not far from his house, and the new ordinariness of this current manner of death, made me wonder what he would have noticed and written about it —“I’m sure it will be discovered he was taking notes,” a friend said, hopefully — for he was gifted at describing everything.
Mr. Updike’s novels wove an explicit and teeming tapestry of male and female appetites. He noticed astutely, precisely, unnervingly. His stories, some of the best ever written by anyone, were jewels of existential comedy, domestic anguish and restraint.
Found via Practicing Writing: this wonderful obituary from the Boston Globe.
I’ve just learned that there are at least two new Updike books in the publication pipeline: a volume of poetry, Endpoint and Other Poems (which includes the poem “Requiem”), and a story collection, My Father’s Tears and Other Stories; the latter is scheduled to publish this year.
