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It's surprising
to hear John Updike refer to himself as a "self-employed
writer."
The term seems too precarious, too edgy to apply to the
American literary giant who first broke into print in the
country's premier literary magazine, The New Yorker, in 1954 at the age of 22, and who
has, over the last 50 years produced 54 volumes of stories,
novels, poems, and criticism, winning virtually every top
American literary award. His new collection, Early Stories, gathers all of the stories written
between his first publication and 1975, just over 100. The
audio version features a dozen of the most well-known early
stories, read by the author himself, Edward Herrmann, and Jane
Alexander.
Of the audio production, Updike says, "I'm very pleased
they were able to get actors of such distinction. "
Asked about his own narration, he comments, "It's hard to
reconstruct the voice that goes on in your head."
The selections in the audiobook represent almost all of the
subtitled sections of the collection, which happen also
to represent the stages of the author's life as they were
written. The Tarbox Tales selections feature two of Updike's
most well-known stories, "A&P," now one of the
most anthologized, and a piece that Updike considers its
companion, "Lifeguard."
In telling of the writing of these two stories, Updike tips
his hat to the power of revision: "In my original
version, "A&P" went on after Sammy resigned from
his job [as a grocery clerk]. So, now unemployed, he goes to
the beach everyday and looks for those wronged females. But he
never does see them again. My editor, however, felt the story
ended where Sammy quit. Yet I had these few pages of
girl-watching at the beach, so I invented this conceit of a
divinity student whose summer job is to be a lifeguard,"
and that turned into the second story. Updike's fans will note
that the
(Continued on page 3)
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