MixedThe AtlanticSuffers from the all-too-human foible of claiming high ideals while failing to actually abide by them ... I enjoyed every swift page of Vigil’s prose ... But I was taken aback by the malice of staging a deathbed inquisition that reduces the decedent, whatever his offenses, to cliché ... My disappointment in Vigil came down to the waste of a perfect setup for exhibiting the worldly redemption of art—that is, its power to redeem us from insensitivity and self-satisfaction.
RaveThe AtlanticUpdike’s letters could constitute the outline for a never-published Updike novel. The writing is variously winking, earnest, desperate, oversexed, and ambitious ... Updike is, as ever, captivating on the page ... His letters to Mary in this era are silly, intimate, and affectionate—bittersweet to read now, with the knowledge that their relationship was doomed ... John Updike was a writer, one of the all-time greats. That’s all he ever wanted to be. But first, and forever, as Selected Letters makes clear again and again, he was a reader.
