Updike at Rest

BY LANCE MANNION

John Updike's death isn't affecting me like Donald Westlake's or John Mortimer's or Studs Terkel's or Tony Hillerman's. Westlake and Mortimer were my literary models at a key moment of my life. Their styles and senses of humor got into my head and my writing. Their characters became my friends. Their books and stories are comforts as well as inspirations. Terkel was a hero. Hillerman just wrote books that I had a lot of fun reading.

Updike was...

Updike.

From the beginning. He was a last name. It was how I was introduced to him.

"Your assignment, class, is to read Updike's A&P."

"What are you reading, Dad?"

"Updike's new novel, Lance." >>MORE