John Updike stands as a titan of American literature, celebrated for his insightful explorations of suburban life, human relationships, and the complexities of the American experience in the latter half of the 20th century. Handpicked by Updike himself to edit the Library of America edition of his works, Christopher Carduff, a leading authority on the author, has curated this list of ten essential John Updike books, showcasing the breadth and depth of his literary genius. From sprawling novel cycles to poignant short story collections and insightful essays, this selection offers a comprehensive entry point into the world of one of America’s most important novelists. For readers looking to delve into the best of John Updike’s novels, this guide, drawing on Carduff’s expert recommendations, is the perfect starting point.
1. Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest)
For many, the Rabbit Angstrom series is synonymous with John Updike and the quintessential postwar American novel. This epic cycle follows the life of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a former high school basketball star grappling with the disillusionments of adulthood. Rabbit is perpetually in motion, a character defined by his reactions and instincts, constantly navigating the hazards, often self-created, of his life. Updike masterfully portrays Rabbit as a creature living in the moment, his senses acutely attuned to the world around him, even as his inner thoughts remain a landscape of confusion and ineffable yearnings. No other American novelist of Updike’s generation crafted a protagonist as representative of the American psyche during this era. Updike’s unparalleled ability to capture the zeitgeist of the American Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, rendering the cultural and societal shifts with vivid detail and nuance, is on full display in these John Updike novels. To fully appreciate this landmark series, consider the definitive Everyman omnibus edition from 1995, which includes an insightful introduction by Updike himself.
2. Olinger Stories: A Selection
In contrast to the expansive and dynamic Rabbit series, Updike’s New Yorker short stories reveal a different facet of his artistry. Olinger Stories: A Selection showcases Updike as an exquisite miniaturist, akin to a literary Vermeer. Here, he meticulously paints domestic scenes on small canvases, employing delicate and deliberate brushstrokes of richly colored prose. This collection, personally selected by Updike from his early autobiographical works, mythologizes his boyhood in a small Pennsylvania town during the 1940s across eleven evocative episodes. Within this collection reside at least two gems, “Pigeon Feathers” and “The Happiest I’ve Been,” stories that alone would secure Updike’s legacy as a master of the American short story form. These stories offer a more intimate and controlled view of Updike’s world, a perfect counterpoint to the sweeping scope of his John Updike novels.
3. Of the Farm
Of the Farm is a novella of remarkable precision and emotional depth, a pastoral drama played out by four voices: an aging farm widow, her middle-aged son visiting with his new second wife, and his eleven-year-old stepchild. This novella stands shoulder to shoulder with other near-perfect postwar American novellas like So Long, See You Tomorrow and The Ghost Writer. Updike imbues the setting, a silent sandstone farmhouse, with a palpable presence, elevating it to the status of a character in its own right. The farmhouse witnesses the unfolding of a weekend fraught with familial tensions and unspoken emotions, making Of the Farm a powerful and concentrated example of Updike’s mastery in crafting resonant settings within his John Updike novels and shorter works.
4. The Maples Stories
Through the poignant scenes depicting the marriage of Joan and Richard Maple, Updike created enduring emblems of American adultery, divorce, and the complex aftermath. Stories such as “Snowing in Greenwich Village” and “Separating” from The Maples Stories resonate with a tenderness and memorability that surpasses even his novel Couples in exploring these themes. As Updike himself reflects in a preface, “That a marriage ends is less than ideal, but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds. The moral of these stories is that all blessings are mixed.” This collection offers a deeply human and nuanced portrayal of marital dissolution, a recurring theme explored with sensitivity throughout John Updike novels.
5. The Witches of Eastwick
Updike’s 1984 comic triumph, The Witches of Eastwick, is a delightful and original “paranormal romance” featuring not one, but three of his most compelling female characters. The narrative centers on Darryl Van Horne, a vulgar, hairy, and petty demon who arrives in a gossipy Rhode Island port town. By subtly harnessing the powers of a coven of three comely and convivial witches, Darryl orchestrates very real, and often humorous, havoc upon certain “deserving” members of the community. To enhance the experience, read Witches alongside its underrated sequel, Widows of Eastwick (2009); the two novels, much like the three witches themselves, amplify each other’s magic when experienced in tandem. This novel showcases Updike’s lighter side, blending humor with his signature insightful character studies, making it a unique entry among John Updike novels.
6. In the Beauty of the Lilies
Published in 1996, this multi-generational saga stands as a personal favorite among Updike’s later John Updike novels. Michiko Kakutani lauded In the Beauty of the Lilies for its ambitious scope, arguing that it surpassed even the Rabbit cycle in its historical and sociological depth. The novel delves into the American fever dreams of Protestant fundamentalism, Hollywood fantasy, and utopian social idealism, working these grand themes through the intimate lives of its characters. Charting the fortunes of an American family across eighty years, Updike masterfully illustrates how dreams, habits, and predispositions are passed down through generations, creating a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation transitioning from the nervous dawn of the 20th century to its uncertain approach to the millennium.
7. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams
On September 28, 1960, baseball legend Ted Williams stepped up to the plate for the last time in Boston’s Fenway Park and hit a home run – a storybook conclusion to an illustrious career. John Updike was present to witness and immortalize this moment in “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.” Roger Angell, a revered authority on baseball writing, hailed this piece as “the best baseball essay ever written.” In 2010, marking the 50th anniversary of Williams’s legendary home run, The Library of America re-published Updike’s singular foray into sports reporting, accompanied by a memorial tribute, “Ted Williams, 1918–2002.” In every line, Updike’s deep admiration and “fannish identification” with Williams, an artist who poured his heart into every swing, is palpable. While not a novel, this essay provides valuable insight into Updike’s artistic sensibilities and his ability to capture the essence of American culture beyond his John Updike novels.
8. Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism
While Updike occasionally donned the sportswriter’s cap, he more consistently wore the tweed jacket of the literary journalist. After 1960, he became a dominant voice in the book review pages of The New Yorker, contributing over 400 reviews and essays over five decades. Among his six substantial collections of criticism, Hugging the Shore, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner in 1984, stands out as particularly rich and compelling. This collection features masterful essays on literary giants like Melville, Hawthorne, and Whitman, enduringly readable reviews of Nabokov, Bellow, and Cheever, and exemplary pieces of occasional writing, ranging from humorous sketches and literary translations to definitive tributes to poets, theologians, astronomers, and movie stars. This collection demonstrates Updike’s intellectual range and critical acumen, offering a valuable companion to his John Updike novels.
9. Self-Consciousness: Memoirs
John Hoyer Updike’s Self-Consciousness: Memoirs departs from conventional autobiography, instead presenting six Emersonian essays exploring deeply personal subjects. These essays delve into his formative years in small-town Pennsylvania, his Updike and Hoyer ancestry, his experiences with psoriasis and stuttering, his conservative political leanings, his Protestant faith, and his fundamental sense of self. This is not a tell-all memoir but rather a profound meditation on John Updike’s life as “a specimen life, representative in its odd uniqueness of all the oddly uniquely lives in the world.” Self-Consciousness is not about confessional gossip; it is a thoughtful and articulate study in the very act of being alive, offering a unique perspective on the man behind the John Updike novels.
10. Endpoint and Other Poems
Updike’s literary journey began and ended with poetry. His first published book in 1958 was a verse collection, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures, and his final book, released in 2009, was also a volume of verse, Endpoint and Other Poems. Across these books and the six poetry collections in between, Updike consistently demonstrated himself to be a “real” poet, not merely a novelist who also wrote poetry. Certain poems, such as “Seven Stanzas at Easter,” “Dog’s Death,” “A Rescue,” and “Rats,” seem destined for lasting inclusion in standard poetry anthologies. For dedicated poetry enthusiasts, the title poem of Endpoint will likely hold special significance. This sequence of supple and intimate blank-verse sonnets chronicles Updike’s final years, culminating in a series of deeply moving entries that telescope into a personal journal of his last days. While primarily known for his John Updike novels, his poetry offers another rich dimension to his literary legacy.
This curated list, drawing on Christopher Carduff’s expertise, provides a compelling roadmap for exploring the essential works of John Updike. Whether you are a longtime admirer or a newcomer to his writing, these ten recommendations offer a journey through the landscape of his literary achievements, showcasing his remarkable talent and enduring contribution to American literature.
