UPDIKE

Narrator Grover Gardner gets a marathon workout as he delivers this comprehensive biography of the celebrated novelist, poet, and essayist John Updike. Gardner envelops Begley’s heartfelt prose with warm tones and gentle pauses that let the major turning points in Updike’s career sink into the listener’s ear. Begley discusses, for example, the importance of Updike’s first appearance in THE NEW YORKER and its place in the securing of his ambitions. He also shows the many ways that Updike interpreted the true events of his life in his fiction. As Begley allows his affection for the novelist to bleed through, Gardner ensures that listeners are entertained and enlightened by this account of one of the twentieth century’s finest literary talents. R.O. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2015]