John Updike

John Updike just died. I read The Witches of Eastwick, Roger's Version and Memories of the Ford Administration, which is the one that stands out for me most. It's more about James Buchanan then Gerald Ford but it offered an interesting contrast between the chaste Buchanan, the only bachelor to be president, and the open sexuality of the seventies. What appealed to me most I think is his obvious love of American history and literature as shown by the Hawthorne themes in Roger's Version, the interest in an obscure president like Buchanan and his observations on modern America.