Randy Johnny …

… Updike: What kind of biography do you write when you are the closest thing to being John Updike’s son? - The Globe and Mail. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Begley deftly recapitulates a story familiar to readers of Updike’s memoirSelf-Consciousness as well as novels like The Centaur: the swaddled childhood in small-town and rural Pennsylvania; the strong-willed mother with her own literary ambitions; the self-sacrificing father; the brightness and talent that opened the doors to Harvard and The New Yorker; the 1953 marriage while still an undergraduate to Mary; the four children (two sons and two daughters); the adulteries that both Mary and Updike indulged in as part of the swinging crowd of Ipswich, Mass.; the tormented love affair with Joyce Harrington that almost tore apart the marriage in 1962; the crazy sexual adventurism in the aftermath of that affair when Updike seems to have slept with nearly every housewife in Ipswich; the bestselling fame; the final dissolution of the marriage in the mid-1970s; the remarriage to his now-divorced former mistress Martha Bernhard; the lingering guilt over the impact of all this on his kids and stepkids (three sons from Martha’s first marriage).

What a stupidly messy way to live.

What Begley has to say: Biographer Explains How John Updike 'Captured America'. (Also from Dave.)

When I read deeply in Updike, which is really the best way to read Updike, is to immerse yourself, I'm struck by the beauty of his sentences always. You can't miss it. But what he hits when he's on top of his game is deep truths about the American soul, and not just politics, but personally. I mean, when his stories hit you, you realize that you are being targeted individually. There's something very specific about his voice talking to you. When he hits nostalgia, for example, you realize suddenly that you are nostalgic the way his characters are.