This New England

In John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick, apparently based on Wickford and East Greenwich, R.I., he describes a storm over Narragansett Bay: "The wind stiffened, and the sky toward Providence stood revealed as possessing the density of some translucent, empurpled rock. ...

At the base of this cliff of atmosphere cumulus clouds, moments ago as innocuous as flowers afloat in a pond, had begun to boil, their edges brilliant as marble against the blackening air."

Updike was a master of description, to some too much so. It often seemed that few scenes registered on his eyes that did not end up flowing over the Niagara of his writing.

At left, detail from "Approaching Storm,'' by the great Rhode Island painter Edward Bannister.

XXX

Great quote from Harry Truman 1948, "A 'bureaucrat' is a Democrat who has a job some Republican wants." Of course, there is also his famous "A statesman is a dead politician.''
Good to remember when political rhetoric gets intense.

 Tags  Edward Bannister John Updike.

Comments

Christopher Foss said:

Updike's descriptions - i.e. of the sky possessing the density of "empurpled rock" - perhaps struck many as "purple prose", but one had to marvel at the verbal dexterity, the virtuoso craftsmanship at work.

I picked up Updike's novel, Brazil, about a week before Updike's death, and while I haven't finished it (It's perfect as a means of transport into another world, just before turning off the lights at night)... I find it entirely engrossing and beautiful. The critics (at least Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times), panned it - and although it does strain a bit as a "translation" of the Tristan and Iseult myth, or perhaps doesn't measure up to the Rabbit Angstrom novels...I happen to think it's wonderful (so far).

Link | January 30, 2009 11:56 AM
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