Realism and Romance in John Updike's Marry Me

Abstract

One of the pitfalls on the road of any commentator on any author is that of seizing upon a single aspect of his work and developing this aspect to the exclusion of others equally important. What is said may then be true enough, yet the total picture becomes a distorted one. The danger of a selective reading pulling the whole critical super-structure awry is peculiarly evident in connection with John Updike. He is a comic writer, a fabulist, a poet, a moralist, an observer of social mores, a religious believer, a student of history, an “earnest meditator” on the ego, a critic of other authors—and sometimes all of these things at once. Those who would bake a critical cake must not only include all the ingredients he has supplied but also mix them in the right proportions. If they fail, the cake will turn out flat.