{"product_id":"book-bdb0","title":"Updike","description":"\u003cp\u003eA masterful, much-anticipated biography of one of the most celebrated figures in American literature: Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike-a candid, intimate, and richly detailed look at his life and work\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this magisterial biography, Adam Begley offers an illuminating portrait of John Updike, the acclaimed novelist, poet, short-story writer, and critic who saw himself as a literary spy in small-town and suburban America, who dedicated himself to the task of transcribing \"middleness with all its grits, bumps, and anonymities.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eUpdike\u003c\/i\u003e explores the stages of the writer's pilgrim's progress: his beloved home turf of Berks County, Pennsylvania; his escape to Harvard; his brief, busy working life as the golden boy at the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e; his family years in suburban Ipswich, Massachusetts; his extensive travel abroad; and his retreat to another Massachusetts town, Beverly Farms, where he remained until his death in 2009. Drawing from in-depth research as well as interviews with the writer's colleagues, friends, and family, Begley explores how Updike's fiction was shaped by his tumultuous personal life-including his enduring religious faith, his two marriages, and his firsthand experience of the \"adulterous society\" he was credited with exposing in the bestselling \u003ci\u003eCouples\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a sharp critical sensibility that lends depth and originality to his analysis, Begley probes Updike's best-loved works-from \u003ci\u003ePigeon Feathers \u003c\/i\u003eto \u003ci\u003eThe Witches of Eastwick \u003c\/i\u003eto the Rabbit tetralogy-and reveals a surprising and deeply complex character fraught with contradictions: a kind man with a vicious wit, a gregarious charmer who was ruthlessly competitive, a private person compelled to spill his secrets on the printed page. \u003ci\u003eUpdike \u003c\/i\u003eoffers an admiring yet balanced look at this national treasure, a master whose writing continues to resonate like no one else's.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49300613169456,"sku":"BDbdb0","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49300613202224,"sku":"ZEbdb0","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD [ZM]","offer_id":49300613234992,"sku":"ZMbdb0","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/bdb0-Square-cover.jpg?v=1776613700","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-bdb0","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}