Adam Begley's literary biography of John Updike comes about as close to perfection as a work of its genre can; he is comprehensive and undeniably sympathetic without succumbing to hagiography. Begley skillfully interweaves the narrative of Updike's life with close readings of many of his works. This seems especially fitting when assessing a writer whose fiction drew so heavily on his own experience, and Begley lauds the "particular brilliance with which he made his autobiographical material come alive on the page." He devotes ample attention to Updike's close relationships--the ones with his writer-mother, Linda, and his wives, Mary and Martha, the most noteworthy--and offers candid insights into his literary friendships (Joyce Carol Oates and Ian McEwan) and rivalries (John Cheever and Philip Roth).
Begley is generous in his appreciation of the books he considers Updike's best, highlighted by the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy, a chronicle of four decades of American life. But even when lavishing praise on an early novel like Of the Farm ("a small, quiet triumph"), he doesn't hesitate to give fair billing to a critic like John Aldridge, who dispatched the same work in a savage review, concluding that Updike had "nothing to say."
As determined as Adam Begley is to deliver John Updike to what he considers his rightful place in the top rank of 20th-century American fiction, the man whose life and career are considered in these pages is fully human. This is a work Updike would have read with a wry smile, and one he likely would have admired. --Harvey Freedenberg, attorney and freelance reviewer