Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

of lung cancer.

Great writer. Over at The Daily Beast they have a link to one of his poems:

Perfection Wasted

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market --
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.

John Updike

[Rum Jungle]

A nice poem that also shows Updike's prose style.
The 'Rabbit' novels for me are a good representation of American life. ("Rabbit is Rich" with it descriptions of everything late 70s is a really good read).
Rabbit..Living in Pennsylvania with the wife, the mother-in-law, the Toyota dealership, and the son returning home from Kent State University in 1979. A good novel.
His other works...'Couples'. 'The Witches of Eastwick'..haven't read 'Couples', 'The Witches of Eastwick' was a pretty bad film.
John Updike
I miss you.

[ManintheMiddle]

Really sad news indeed. One of the great writers of the past few decades. His novel "The Terrorist" was excellent and didn't receive the praise it was due. And let's not forget some of his masterpiece short stories.