The John Updike Audio Collection Book

Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann are perfect choices to narrate Updike stories, with their proper Yankee voices and inflections. They know just how to read this great writer's work, and do an even better job than Updike himself, who reads a few of them also, which is not to say that he is a weak narrator. It is interesting that a female narrator does not detract at all from the stories; Updike's point of view was clearly male but he was no macho dude. Any fan of his work should appreciate this collection, and when you listen to his writing, it brings out the flowery, finicky, yet richly expressive character of his prose.

I suppose I could complain about the selection, which seems a bit random, but does cover a few of the different things that he does. A couple of the Maples stories are included - they are the young couple that Updike followed from youthful marriage through infidelity and divorce. I still can't get a handle on the character of Richard Maples; he is an odd duck, proper and successful, but also impulsive, emotional, and a little feminine.

Another thought that crossed my mind as I listened to this: Updike was not really a story-teller. There is the occasional dramatic moment, but he was primarily a literary portraitist (and wordsmith). He created witty, often humorous portraits in words - of families, of struggling couples, of men, of homes, of gatherings, and of the times and places in which his characters lived (which were the same times and places that the author lived in). And as a literary portraitist, he probably had/has very few peers.