Bridgman reviewed Marry me by John Updike
Review of 'Marry me' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Don't listen to anything I say about [a:John Updike|6878|John Updike|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419249254p2/6878.jpg]'s 1976 novel [b:Marry Me: A Romance|85376|Marry Me A Romance|John Updike|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1419181878l/85376.SX50.jpg|2270621]. My attention span, always lousy, didn't give it the amount of concentration it deserved.
It was, according to the Wikipedia entry on it, well received by critics, who called it Updike's most sophisticated work yet and that his portrayals of women were excellent. I never married or even came close, so couples stuff that goes deep sometimes washes over me. The subtitle is "A Romance," but that's sort of tongue-in-cheek.
The novel takes place in 1962. It's not the kind of thing anyone would get published now. Suburban white people in Connecticut, educated, financially secure, no perverts or incipient revolutions coming up. It would appeal to a narrow audience now, which is, in some ways, unfortunate.
Updike nearly chose being an artist as a career, and you can …
Don't listen to anything I say about [a:John Updike|6878|John Updike|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419249254p2/6878.jpg]'s 1976 novel [b:Marry Me: A Romance|85376|Marry Me A Romance|John Updike|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1419181878l/85376.SX50.jpg|2270621]. My attention span, always lousy, didn't give it the amount of concentration it deserved.
It was, according to the Wikipedia entry on it, well received by critics, who called it Updike's most sophisticated work yet and that his portrayals of women were excellent. I never married or even came close, so couples stuff that goes deep sometimes washes over me. The subtitle is "A Romance," but that's sort of tongue-in-cheek.
The novel takes place in 1962. It's not the kind of thing anyone would get published now. Suburban white people in Connecticut, educated, financially secure, no perverts or incipient revolutions coming up. It would appeal to a narrow audience now, which is, in some ways, unfortunate.
Updike nearly chose being an artist as a career, and you can see that in his writing, some of which, in this book, describes viewing art.
Here's part of a description of a car accident:
The Falcon, with a little skating skip like a sailboat with its centerboard pulled, slid to the left. Ruth steered to the right and was surprised to feel nothing under her touch; it was as if she looked into a mirror that then turned transparent. Then, in a later portion of the same distended moment, her attempt at control was gigantically distorted; the car slewed heavily around to the right and she saw, omitting to brake, that she was going to go over the wall.
13:10