John Updike by Judie Newman (review)

124Reviews more detailed than others. The reader was born with his own compass; from here he can find the way on his own" (p. 96). In these five chapters, Reynolds considers the narrator, structure, geography and history, values, and themes of the novel. He shows, for instance, that because Hemingway began the manuscript in medias res but switched to straight chronology in revision, the published text begins with the wrong narrative hook, one that focuses on Cohn and Brett instead of on the corruption of the narrator and the loss he suffers when he pimps for Brett and forever forfeits his membership in Montoya's aficionado club. Reynolds goes on to show that though Hemingway did not write a well-made novel in the traditional sense, he did follow Stein's advice, living the work as he wrote it, letting each day make up its own action. This resulted in a book that compensates for what it lacks in careful plotting with internal control created by means of a complex narrator who is the moral register of the world he presents. By the end of the book, the apparently disparate strands come together to create internal unity. This unity is achieved by means of recurring signs, motifs, and themes—such as the bullfight ritual, taxis, eating and drinking, bathing, paying bills, and skewed time references—that reverberate throughout the text, controlling the action and creating a sense of necessity behind and within events. Other emphases include Jake's ironic tone that often implies the opposite of what he says; Hemingway's extraordinary ability to select details that evoke the ambiance of Paris, Burguete, and Pamplona and allow us to feel like insiders; Jake's function as "an early explorer of our century's moral condition" (p. 95); Jake's presentation of the times and values of the world he lives in but did not create; Jake's role as the Oak Park representative placed in a foreign culture that tests his own cultural values; illuminating explanations of now unfamiliar references; and the effect on Hemingway of modernist influences such as Einstein's concept of the relativity of time and place, Joyce's insistence on factual precision for the chemistry of the fiction, and Eliot's use of water imagery and ritual in The Waste Land. Such information and explanations are invaluable for first-time readers and helpful for those already familiar with the text. Writing primarily for new readers of Hemingway, Reynolds articulates questions they might typically ask, explains reasons for their likely reactions, and then leads them toward a clearer understanding of what Hemingway is doing and how he is doing it. Reynolds' distinctive voice and familiar tone draw the reader in to participate in the story. And within the voice there is a refreshing moral stance that implies responsibility: toward the text, toward history, toward the study and teaching of literature, and toward the world we live in. The combination of knowledge, tone, and moral stance makes this the best and most useful introduction to The Sun Also Rises for readers at any level. University of New MexicoWilliam Balassi Newman, Judie. John Updike. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. 164 pp. Cloth $19.95. Since around the publication of Rabbit, Run in 1960, critics have argued about whether John Updike's formidable technical repertoire and stylistic facility have enhanced the content of his fiction or covered up for its absence. In her very good short book, Judie Newman tries to show that Updike has "something to say" by emphasizing his informed interest in social groups and revealing how his fiction "opens up for debate such issues as social engineering , sexual politics, economics, and technology" (p. 2). Newman's usual strategy for illuminating Updike's novels, beginning with The Poorhouse Fair and up to and including Roger's Version, is to show how they dramatize and explore Studies in American Fiction125 significant diagnoses of modern culture made by other writers. Her defence of Couples, for example (in a chapter called "The Social Ethic"), is helped considerably by the intellectual context she provides for it: books by Herbert Marcuse (Eros and Civilization), Norman O. Brown (Life Against Death), Eric...