John Updike Knihy

Nascut v roku 1932 v Pennsylvánii, Updike vyrastal na izolovanej farme v Shillingtone. Ako dieťa s koktavým prejavom a psoriázou ho matka povzbudzovala, aby sa vyjadroval písaním. Po absolvovaní Harvardu s vyznamenaním sa stal jedným z najplodnejších amerických autorov, publikujúc takmer jeden zväzok ročne, vrátane 22 románov a viac ako 10 zbierok poviedok, poézie a literárnej kritiky. Jeho slávna tetralógia "Rabbit" mu priniesla dve Pulitzerove ceny za fikciu. Updike sa často zaoberá témami erosu, viery a smrti. Román "Centaur", považovaný za jeho majstrovské dielo, získal v roku 1963 National Book Award. Profesor Caldwell, Centaur, žije v americkom meste 40. rokov a je zranený študentom. Uväznení snehom so svojím synom sa obaja navzájom objavujú v trojdňovej iniciačnej skúsenosti, na konci ktorej Centaurovi je dovolené stratiť svoju nesmrteľnosť.

Román o zivote niekoľkých dobre situovaných párov, ktorí spolu trávia voľné chvíle pri rôznych zaujímavých aktivitách a rozhovoroch. Veľmi inšpirujúce nahliadnutie do života iných párov, ktoré autor vykreslil veľmi realisticky.

Román Hľadaj moju tvár od Johna Updika vyšiel v roku 2002 a predstavuje slávneho amerického spisovateľa na vrchole tvorivých síl. Poučná, zábavná aj pikantná kniha je poctou modernému americkému výtvarnému umeniu a nahliadnutím do zákulisia ľudskej kreativity. Dej sa odohráva v rozmedzí 30. a 50. rokov minulého storočia, keď na umeleckej scéne dominovali osobnosti abstraktného expresionizmu a pop-artu. Centrálnou postavou je maliarka Hope Chafetzová, ktorej traja manželia boli slávnymi a kontroverznými umelcami. Príbeh o partnerstvách, láskach, sexe, ale najmä o umeleckom hľadaní predstavuje newyorskú bohému, zmes reálnych a fiktívnych postáv: Jacksona Pollocka, Willema de Kooninga, Andyho Warhola či Jeffa Koonsa. Originálnou kolážou prózy a umenovedy vznikol román, ktorým spisovateľ potvrdil svoje renomé majstrovského rozprávača.

Ahmad, potomok írsko-americkej matky a egyptského otca, ktorý od nich odišiel, keď mal jeho syn tri roky, je horlivým vyznávačom islámu. V osemnástich rokoch má pocit, že jeho vieru ohrozuje materialistická, hedonistická spoločnosť, ktorú vidí okolo seba v upadajúcom priemyselnom meste New Prospect v severnom New Jersey. Životom unavenému, depresívnemu profesionálnemu poradcovi v Central High School, Jackovi Levymu, ani Ahmadovej roztopašne zvodnej čiernej spolužiačke Joryleen Grantovej sa nepodarí odvrátiť chlapca od toho, čo jeho náboženstvo nazýva Priama cesta. Pod manipulatívnym vplyvom svojho priateľa sa Ahmad zapletie do komplotu, ktorý svojím katastrofálnym dosahom vzbudí pozornosť bezpečnostných zložiek. V Koráne sa však píše, že spomedzi tých, čo vedia zosnovať komplot, je Boh ten najšikovnejší.

Román Vezmi si ma, ktorý vyšiel v USA roku 1976, je ďalším významným dielom amerického prozaika, preloženým do viacerých jazykov. Ide o kritickorealistický príbeh, kde autor za pomoci irónie a satiry analyzuje súčasný americký život v jeho sociálnych súvislostiach. Sústreďuje sa tu najmä na pomery v modernej rodine, na ktorej osudoch sa odzrkadľujú najpálčivejšie problémy, konflikty a krízy spoločnosti, predovšetkým stredných vrstiev. Stredobodom sú dva manželské páry, ktoré sa domáhajú svojho práva na osobné šťastie. V centre príbehu stojí láska Jerryho a Sally, dvojice, ktorá sa usiluje usporiadať si život podľa vlastných predstáv, i keď pritom ohrozuje svoje rodiny. Najmä pri opise charakterov manželského štvoruholníka, ktorý dopĺňajú Richard a Ruth, Updike sa opäť prejavil ako dobrý znalec ľudskej psychológie s veľkým zmyslom pre humor.

Harry Angstrom, now middle-aged and the chief sales representative of a Toyota dealership, attempts to cope with such problems as inflation, governmental ineffectiveness, the return of his prodigal son, and a chance encounter with an old girlfriend.

It's 1969 and Rabbit has changed, as America has changed in the intervening ten years since the book "Rabbit, Run". His marriage is collapsing, his job is redundant and the urgency of racial tension present a challenge neither his consciousness nor his sexuality can resist.

“Drinking a toast to the visible world, his impending disappearance from it be damned.” That’s how John Updike describes one of his elderly protagonists in this, his final collection of short stories. He might have been writing about himself. In My Father’s Tears, the author revisits his signature characters, places, and themes—Americans in suburbs, cities, and small towns grappling with faith and infidelity—in a gallery of portraits of his aging generation, men and women for whom making peace with the past is now paramount. The Seattle Times called My Father’s Tears “a haunting collection” that “echoes the melancholy of Chekhov, the romanticism of Wordsworth and the mournful spirit of Yeats.”

Two of John Updike's best novels in one volume. An excellent read.

Using details from the ancient Scandinavian legends that were the inspiration for Hamlet, this tale brings to life Gertrude's girlhood as the daughter of King Rorik, her arranged marriage to the man who becomes King, and her middle- aged affair with her husband's younger brother. schovat popis

Updikův román Chceš si mne vzít? (Marry Me, 1976) patří k těm jeho dílům, které se zabývají mezilidskými vztahy a především krizí moderního manželství (stejně jako román Dvojice a povídková sbírka Manželé a milenci a byl napsán krátce po rozpadu jeho prvního manželství, který jej nepochybně značně poznamenal). Je to příběh v podstatě čtyř protagonistů, zmatených a tápajících, hledajících obyčejné lidské štěstí. Domáhají se jej ale sobecky na úkor druhých – ani ne tak z neodpovědnosti, je to spíš projev lidské slabosti. Negativita rozpadů vztahu je ale současně vyrovnávána snahou o budování vztahů nových, postavených na pevnějších základech. Mikrosvět manželských vztahů včetně jeho krizí je díky jeho stylistickým kvalitám a perfektnímu zvládání detailů a jejich sestavení do funkčního celku (a nepochybně i jeho osobní zkušenosti) přestaven tak, že působí jako symbolický obraz stavu celé americké společnosti, aniž by ztratil schopnost působit na čtenáře zažitě a upřímně.

Owen Mackenzie�s life story abounds with sin and seduction, domesticity and debauchery. His marriage to his college sweetheart is quickly followed by his first betrayal and he embarks upon a series of affairs. His pursuit of happiness, in a succession of small towns from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, brings him to the edge of chaos, from which he is saved by a rescue that carries its own fatal price.

The Coup describes violent events in the imaginary African nation of Kush, a large, landlocked, drought-ridden, sub-Saharan country led by Colonel Hakim Félix Ellelloû. (“A leader,” writes Colonel Ellelloû, “is one who, out of madness or goodness, takes upon himself the woe of a people. There are few men so foolish.”) Colonel Ellelloû has four wives, a silver Mercedes, and a fanatic aversion—cultural, ideological, and personal—to the United States. But the U.S. keeps creeping into Kush, and the repercussions of this incursion constitute the events of the novel. Colonel Ellelloû tells his own story—always elegantly, and often in the third person—from an undisclosed location in the South of France. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Tristao Raposa, a 19-year-old black child of the Rio slums, spies Isabel Leme, an 18-year-old upper-class white girl, across the hot sands of Copocabana Beach, and presents her with a ring. Their flight into marriage takes them from urban banality to Brazil's wild west.

Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick—and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Výběr sedmi povídek Holubí pírka obsahuje povídky se sbírek Pigeon Feathers (1962) a The Same Door (1959) vybraných a přeložených Igorem Hájkem. Zejména povídky se sbírky Pigeon Feathers nenechaly již nikoho na pochybách, že do americké literatury vstoupil další z vynikajících mistrů tohoto žánru. Svědčí o tom i skutečnost, že povídka Holubí pírka, podle níž je výběr nazván, byla otištěna i v antologii Best American Short Stories 1962.

Navazuje na autorův autobiografický román Kentaur. Psychologická novela vypráví o soužití dvou generací a o vztahu matky a syna. Korunní drama, odehrávající se v průběhu 3 dnů v prostředí rodinné farmy, kam hrdina příběhu, reklamní poradce z New Yorku, přiveze svou druhou ženu a jejího jedenáctiletého syna. Mezi stárnoucí matkou, lpící na rodné půdě, a třemi dalšími příslušníky rodiny, zcela zvyklými na městský život, vznikne konfliktní situace, umocňovaná i synovým manželstvím, kde dochází k rozvratu, který synovi matka zazlívá.

Výbor z veršů předního amerického spisovatele

Gathers photographs of actors, actresses, musicians, composers, writers, and military, religious, and political leaders

The third and fourth novel in John Updike's acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books -- now in one marvelous volume. RABBIT IS RICHWinner of the American Book Award andthe National Book Critics Circle Award"Dazzlingly reaffirms Updike's place as master chronicler of the spiritual maladies and very earthly pleasure of the Middle-American male."Vogue"A splendid achievement!"The New York TimesRABBIT AT RESTWinner of the Pulitzer Prize andthe National Book Critics Circle Award"Brilliant . . . It must be read. It is the best novel about America to come out of America for a very, very long time."The Washington Post Book World"Powerful . . . John Updike with his precision's prose and his intimately attentive yet cold eye is a master."The New York Times Book Review

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, Hugging the Shore is an enormously intelligent, witty collection of essays by John Updike. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist sheds keen light on everything from the first kiss to going barefoot to the world's greatest writers. First time in paper.

Newly revised by the author for this edition, and printed together in one volume for the first time, Updike's four Rabbit novels chronicle the history of a man and a nation from the 1950s to the 1980s. Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, athlete, is Mr Middle America. Dazzling in style, tender in feeling, often erotic in description and coruscating with realistic details which recreate a world in each novel, these books give a complete picture of their age.

Newly available in paperback, this 20th anniversary edition of a Caldecott Honor classic combines the star power of John Updike and Trina Schart Hyman. Celebrate the little moments that make each month special in this beautiful picture book featuring twelve poems about a family and the turn of the seasons. From the short, frozen days of January, through the light of summer, to the first snowflakes of December, Updike's poems rejoices in the familiar, wondrous qualities that make each part of the year unique. Hyman's award-winning paintings--modeled after her own daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren--depict an interracial family going about the business of their lives throughout the year: sledding in January, watching fireworks in July, and playing in the autumn leaves. Bold and colorful, they're filled with the intricate detail for which her art is famous-- including cameo appearances by the artist and her partner, Jean Aull. Featuring a redesigned cover, the 20th Anniversary Edition of this inclusive Caldecott Honor book is a beautiful read-aloud to treasure throughout the year, with family and friends.

Including one new story and an Index by author of every story that has ever appeared in the series, this new volume offers a "spectacular tapestry of fictional achievement" ("Entertainment Weekly").

At the height of his literary prowess, Updike brings the Rabbit series to a poignant conclusion while reinterpreting Hawthorne's classic, The Scarlet Letter, in a modern context. This novel explores themes of guilt, redemption, and societal judgment, weaving a rich narrative that resonates with contemporary issues. Through complex characters and intricate storytelling, Updike reflects on the human condition and the moral dilemmas faced in today's world, offering a fresh perspective on timeless themes.

John Updike's first collection of new short stories in seven years deals with such problems as divorce and remarriage, parents and children, prostitution and leprosy, extinct mammals and guilt-gems, resigning from a committee and getting in and out of Ethiopia.

From the pages of America’s most influential magazine come eight decades of holiday cheer–plus the occasional comical coal in the stocking–in one incomparable collection. Sublime and ridiculous, sentimental and searing, Christmas at The New Yorker is a gift of great writing and drawing by literary legends and laugh-out-loud cartoonists.Here are seasonal stories, poems, memoirs. and more, from a stellar roster of writers, including John Cheever, James Dickey, Richard Ford, Ken Kesey, Alice Munro, Vladimir Nabokov, S. J. Perelman, Adrienne Rich, and James Thurber. And it wouldn’t be Christmas–or The New Yorker–without dozens of covers and cartoons by Addams, Arno, Chast, and others, or the mischievous verse of Roger Angell, Calvin Trillin, and Ogden Nash (“Do you know Mrs. Millard Fillmore Revere? / On her calendar, Christmas comes three hundred and sixty-five times a year.”)From Jazz Age to New Age, E. B. White to Garrison Keillor, these works represent eighty years of wonderful keepsakes for Christmas, from The New Yorker to you.

Henry Bech, the celebrated author of Travel Light, has been scrutinized, canonized and vilified by critics and readers across the world. This work explores the writing life and what happens when a writer becomes a literary celebrity.

The trilogy comprises of Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux and Rabbit is Rich. It is intended as an amusing, sympathetic study of a man, Rabbit Angstron, putting up a fight against the inevitable.

The collection features Henry Bech, John Updike's humorous alter-ego, who has entertained readers with his artistic indecision and vibrant sexuality since his debut in The New Yorker. These stories provide a playful yet affectionate exploration of a notoriously unproductive Jewish-American writer, showcasing Updike's signature wit and lyrical style. Included is a final story, "His Oeuvre," which serves as a fitting conclusion to Bech's literary journey, highlighting the charm and depth of this beloved character.

Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In John Updike's fourth and final novel about ex-basketball player Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the hero has acquired heart trouble, a Florida condo, and a second grandchild. His son and daughter-in-law are acting erratically, his wife Janice wants to work, and Rabbit is searching his soul, looking for reasons to live.

This stunning collection of 28 stories brings readers a literary portrait of the American family from 1894 to today. A collection of works that captures the essence of American families from living together and apart to loving and letting go.Regret / Kate Chopin --The lombardy poplar / Mary Wilkins Freeman --The widow's might / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --Old Rogaum and his Theresa / Theodore Dreiser --The sorrows of gin / John Cheever --I stand here ironing / Tillie Olsen --Simple and Counsin F.D. Roosevelt Brown / Langston Hughes --The sky is gray / Ernest J. Gaines --My Coney Island uncle / Harvey Swados --My son the murderer / Bernard Malamud --Final dwarf / Henry Roth --And Sarah laughed / Joanne Greenberg --Wedding day / Roberta Silman --The legacy of Beau Kremel / Stephen Wolf --Kiswana Brown / Gloria Naylor --Tuesdays / Mary Hedin --Afloat / Ann Beattie --Winterblossom garden / David Low --Old things / Bobbie Ann Mason --Starlight / Marian Thurm --The writer in the family / E.L. Doctorow --The rich brother / Tobias Wolff --My legacy / Don Zacharia --Violation / Mary Gordon --Appropriate affect / Sue Miller --What I did for love / Lynne Sharon Schwartz --Still of some use / John Updike --Elephant / Raymond Carver

The first and second novels in John Updike's acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books -- now in one marvelous volume. RABBIT, RUN"Brilliant and poignant . . . By his compassion, clarity of insight, and crystal-bright prose, [Updike] makes Rabbit's sorrow his and out own.The Washington Post"Precise, graceful, stunning, he is an athlete of words and images. He is also an impeccable observer of thoughts and feelings."The Village VoiceRABBIT REDUX"Great in love, in art, boldness, freedom, wisdom, kindness, exceedingly rich in intelligence, wit, imagination, and feeling -- a great and beautiful thing . . . these hyperboles (quoted from a letter written long ago by Thomas Mann) come to mind after reading John Updike's Rabbit Redux.The New York Times Book Review "Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. . . . A masterpiece.Time

Digte. A collection of poems that John Updike wrote during the last seven years of his life and put together only weeks before he died for this, his final book. The opening sequence, "Endpoint," is made up of a series of connected poems written on the occasions of his recent birthdays and culminates in his confrontation with his final illness

Since the Dark Ages, when Scots first played a form of golf, no sport has captivated its players and fans like this one. This book captures the essence of golf with a lively and authoritative history, stunning illustrations, and an exceptional collection of original writings. John Garrity, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, offers a fresh take on golf's centuries-old narrative, exploring key personalities, pivotal events, advancements in technique and technology, and the global fascination with the game. The history is enriched by twenty personal essays from various literary low-handicappers, reflecting on topics such as the Age of Tiger, the challenges faced by club pros, the joy of winter golf, and the decision to step away from the sport. Accompanying the text are over 300 photographs and illustrations, including many rare and specially commissioned images, making this volume truly unique. Covering everything from the tee to the green and the clubhouse to the nuthouse, this book is an essential addition for anyone serious about understanding the game of golf.

This collection of John Updike�s non-fiction writings includes a delightful preface, �Everything Considered�, in which he tells of his lifelong love affair with words; essays on travel, and on faith; introductions to some of the classics; reviews of lesser known foreign writers and new books by English and American contemporaries; as well as non-fiction topics from the sinking of the Lusitania to Coco Chanel's �unsinkable career�; tributes to legendary New Yorker figures, and much more. A cruise through the cultural waters of the past decade with as delightful, witty, sensitive and articulate a guide as you could hope for, Due Considerations is a voyage not to be missed.

"Golf Dreams" by John Updike is a collection of his reflections on golf spanning five decades. It features thirty pieces that explore the game's camaraderie, challenges, and nuances through lyrical essays, light verse, and humorous fiction, all infused with his passion for the sport.

Odehrává se v Mexiku ve 40. letech a osou díla je konflikt katolické církve se světskou mocí. Symbolicky je ztělesněn zápasem kněze, vydaného napospas nejrůznějšímu strádání a neustále prchajícího před zákonem, s poručíkem milice, který představuje státní moc. Kněz, který se často dopouští omylů a často pochybující o svém poslání, se nakonec projeví jako morálně i lidsky pevnější než poručík, zpočátku pevně přesvědčený o své pravdě. Sice svůj zápas vyhrává, ale jeho úspěch zdaleka neznamená konečné vítězství.

At age 82, Clifton Fadiman continues his prolific publishing career, here presenting 62 of the world's best short stories from 16 countries. His criteria? "Each story had to be both interesting and of high literary merit." Fadiman fulfills both requirements and much more, offering a cornucopia of superior 20th-century writers that includes Franz Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, Isaac Babel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, Sean O'Faolain, Graham Greene, Robert Penn Warren, Colette, John Updike, Donald Barthelme, and James Thurber. (Regrettably, J. D. Salinger is not included due to lack of permission.) Here is a truly remarkable collection of this century's short stories that readers from all over the world will read with delight.

1 SOFTCOVER BOOK

As Roger Lambert tells it, he, a middle-aged professor of divinity, is buttonholed in his office by Dale Kohler, an earnest young computer scientist who believes that quantifiable evidence of God’s existence is irresistibly accumulating. The theological-scientific debate that ensues, and the wicked strategies that Roger employs to disembarrass Dale of his faith, form the substance of this novel—these and the current of erotic attraction that pulls Esther, Roger’s much younger wife, away from him and into Dale’s bed. The novel, a majestic allegory of faith and reason, ends also as a black comedy of revenge, for this is Roger’s version—Roger Chillingworth’s side of the triangle described by Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter —made new for a disbelieving age.

Exploring the complexities of the sexual revolution, this collection features three masterful novels that delve into themes of desire, identity, and societal change. Through rich character development and insightful storytelling, the work captures the joys and discontents experienced during a transformative era. The definitive edition by the Library of America showcases Updike's profound ability to intertwine personal narratives with broader cultural shifts, making it a significant contribution to American literature.

The renowned Henry Bech is now fifty years old. In this wonderful classic novel, Bech reflects on his fame, travels the world, marries an Episcopalian divorcée from Westchester, and--surprise to all--writes a book that becomes a runaway bestseller. If you've never read Updike before, there's no better place to start. If you've read him for years, you'll be delightfully reminded of John Updike's rightful place in the pantheon of quintessential American writers.

In this brilliant late-career collection, John Updike revisits many of the locales of his early fiction: the small-town Pennsylvania of Olinger Stories, the sandstone farmhouse of Of the Farm, the exurban New England of Couples and Marry Me, and Henry Bech’s Manhattan of artistic ambition and taunting glamour. To a dozen short stories spanning the American Century, the author has added a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. Several strands of the Rabbit saga come together here as, during the fall and winter holidays of 1999, Harry’s survivors fitfully entertain his memory while pursuing their own happiness up to the edge of a new millennium. Love makes Updike’s fictional world go round—married love, filial love, feathery licks of erotic love, and love for the domestic particulars of Middle American life.

A collection of 22 short stories which share the theme of trust, mostly betrayed, but sometimes fulfilled

When junior college professor Alfred Clayton is asked to record his impressions of the Ford Administration, he recalls a turbulent piece of personal history as well. In a decade of sexual liberation, Clayton was facing a doomed marriage and the passionate beginnings of a futile affair with an unattainable Perfect Wife. But one memory begets another: Clayton's unfinished book on James Buchanan. In John Updike's fifteenth novel, he masterfully alternates between the two men, two lives, two American centuries—one Victorian, the other modern—shining an irreverent, witty, and sometimes caustic light on the contrasting views of social fictions and sexual politics....

Taking its title from the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic', In the Beauty of the Lilies traces one family's profound journey through four generations across the spiritual landscape of twentieth-century America. It is one of John Updike's fullest and finest works of fiction.

"A tour de force . . . Readable, clever." Chicago Tribune Book World The adventures of the Reverend Tom Marshfield -- literate, charming, sexual -- whose outrageous behavior with the ladies of his flock scandalizes his parish . . .

Set in a surreal literary landscape, the story follows Henry Bech, now in his seventies, as he navigates a changing world where his books are commercialized and fleeting. Despite his age, he remains competitive and self-absorbed, confronting critics with a mix of humor and defiance. Throughout five striking chapters, Bech's journey includes enacting revenge and ultimately winning a prestigious writing award, all while embodying a blend of grit and ennui in this mock-heroic exploration of a writer's life in modern America.

Collected stories relate the adventures of an American writer as he tours Russia and other Communist-bloc nations

JOHN UPDIKE IS "A STYLIST OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, capable of illuminating the sublime in the mundane, thereby elevating all of human experience." --Chicago Tribune Toward the End of Time "is the journal of a 66-year-old man, Ben Turnbull . . . [which] reveals not only the world but the wanderings of his wits. . . . So what if he jumps from a United States in the next century, disintegrating after a war with China, to ancient Egypt, or to virtual reality? So what if characters appear and disappear like phantoms in a dream? . . . Turnbull's journal is like Walden gone haywire. . . . If Ben's ruthlessness is evenhanded, so is his alarming intelligence; it falls on every scene, person, object, and thought in the book, giving it an eerie ambiance." --The New York Times Book Review "A BOOK AIMED NOT TO RESOLVE BUT TO AROUSE A READER'S WONDER . . . Vintage Updike: marital angst worked out against the chilly backdrop of privilege, rendered with a lyricism and insight and eye for detail reminiscent of the work of Jane Austen." --The Miami Herald "WONDERFUL RUSHES OF NEAR-MELVILLEAN PROSE . . . Toward the End of Time has a force that gets under your skin." --New York Review of Books A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club

The extraordinarily evocative stories depict the generation born in a small-town America during the Depression and growing up in a world where the old sexual morality was turned around and material comforts were easily had. Yet, as these stories reflect so accurately, life was still unsettling, and Updike chronicles telling moments both joyful and painful. The texts are taken from his recent omnibus, "The Early Stories, " 1953-1975.In describing how he wrote these stories in a small, rented, smoke-filled office in Ipswitch, Massachusetts, he says, "I felt that I was packaging something as delicately pervasive as smoke, one box after another, in that room, where my only duty was to describe reality as it had come to me -- to give the mundane its beautiful due."

John Updike's first collection of verse since his Collected Poems, 1953-1993 brings together fifty-eight poems, three of them of considerable length. The four sections take up, in America, its cities and airplanes; the poet's life, his childhood, birthdays, and ailments; foreign travel, to Europe and the tropics; and, beginning with the long "Song of Myself," daily life, its furniture and consolations. There is little of the light verse with which Mr. Updike began his writing career nearly fifty years ago, but a light touch can be felt in his nimble manipulation of the ghosts of metric order, in his caressing of the living textures of things, and in his reluctance to wave goodbye to it all.

A deftly satirical portrait of life and love in a suburban town as only Updike can paint it. Updike's eighth novel, subtitled "A Romance" because, he says, "People don't act like that any more," centers on the love affair of a married couple in the Connecticut of 1962. Unfortunately, this is a couple whose members are married to other people. Suburban infidelity is familiar territory by now, but nobody knows it as well as Updike, and the book is written with the author's characteristic poetic sensibility and sly wit.

Nobody has done more to chart American life through fiction over the last half-century than John Updike, and he is as much a master of the short story as of the novel as this collection proves. It contains: 'Nevada', 'Ethiopia' and 'I am dying, Egypt, dying'.

New York advertising man brings his new family to visit the farm of his youth, thereby encountering ghosts of the past.

These John Updike short stories include "Friends from Philadelphia", "Sunday Teasing", "The Persistence of Desire", "The Other Woman" and "Brother Grasshopper".

New Englander Sarah Worth goes west to join a Hindu commune in Arizona. There she mingles with the other sannyasins (pilgrims) in the difficult attempt to subdue ego and achieve salvation and release from illusion.

At the Diamond County Home for the Aged, the inmates prepare for the annual ritual of the Poorhouse Fair. The elderly residents take pride in the self-respect they gain from this one day. But when the fair goes less well than the folks had hoped, they blame Conner, the new prefect of the home. Together, they begin to revolt against the man.

Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche.

A collection of 4 US novels, published in Steinbeck - Of men and miceJames Jones - The pistolReynolds Price - A long and lappy lifeJohn Updike - Of the farm

Warum hört John Updike gerne Radio? Was hat er zu sagen, wenn er seinem eigenen Romanhelden Bech Rede und Antwort stehen muss? In seinen Kommentaren zum eigenen Werk erweist sich der Pulitzerpreisträger selbst die Ehre. Aber Updike wäre nicht Updike, würde nicht auch der Rest der schreibenden Zunft seiner scharfsinnigen, doch immer auch charmanten Aufmerksamkeit teilhaftig: Lob und Tadel für Momente vollkommenen Leseglücks und Leseleids.

«Der Sprache Schönheit abgewinnen»: John Updikes letzte Gedichte Der Band versammelt vom Augenblick angestoßene Themen: Golf, Filmstars, eine Mondfinsternis, amerikanische Städte und Landschaften, die Erinnerung an Freunde und Gefährten. Auch Grotesken wie «Der Tod eines Computers» und Beispiele des amerikanischen Genres light verse.

„Chcel som napísať knižku o mechanizme diktatúry, o tom, aká je moc vo svojej podstate demoralizujúca, skorumpovaná a deformujúca,“ povedal o svojej knižke Cisár majster reportážneho žánru Ryszard Kapuściński. Autokratickí vládcovia, revolúcie, neznáme a vzdialené krajiny. To všetko spája knihy Ryszarda Kapuścińského, ktorý bol vždy v správnom čase na správnom mieste. Jeho kniha Cisár, to je na jednej strane vynikajúca reportážna sonda do hĺbky Etiópie pod neobmedzenou vládou cisára Hajle Sillaseho, a na strane druhej je to mimoriadne kvalitná próza prešpikovaná satirou a iróniou, ktoré sú Ryszardovi Kapuścińskému vlastné v každej jeho knihe. Etiópia v knihe Cisár je však najmä nadčasovou metaforou fungovania totalitných štátov po celom svete. Včerajších. Dnešných. A celkom iste aj tých zajtrajších.

Eine Sammlung früherer Erzählungen des amerikanischen Autors.

Die Maples, seit einem Jahr verheiratet, erleben gemeinsam den Schnee in Greenwich Village, im Einklang miteinander und diese Harmonie genießend. Ein halbes Dutzend Jahre später muss Richard dann erkennen, dass die eigene Frau zu verführen wesentlich anstrengender ist als die Eroberung eines jungen Mädchens. Immer größere Entfremdung, Affären, Trennung, erneutes Sichnähern, Scheidung.

Ebenso klug wie in seinen Romanen äußert sich Updike in diesem Band über Literatur und Kulturgeschichte, über Architektur und den amerikanischen „Way of Life“. Den Schwerpunkt des Bandes bilden Updikes literarische Essays. Mit dem Sachverstand und dem geschärften Blick des Insiders gibt er neue Einblicke in die Werke berühmter Autoren von Flaubert und Joyce bis zu Böll und Kundera, macht mit verblüffender Leichtigkeit komplexe Zusammenhänge anschaulich und erweist sich nicht zuletzt als unerbittlicher und unbestechlicher Kritiker seines eigenen Werkes.