Biography of John Updike by Adam Begley

Just finished reading Adam Begley's biography of John Updike.  I admire much of Updike's work -- the Rabbit books in particular (except for the second one, which place Harry Angstrom in the Sixties and which I thought was unpersuasive and a mess).  One of the reasons I read biography is to correlate the life to the work, and Begley makes it clear that much of what Updike wrote was autobiography with some names changed.

Being a writer not much interested in the autobiographic impulse, I couldn't help but be intrigued by how Updike sidestepped the pitfalls of autobiographic writing.  But the book also brought me to a conundrum -- much of the behavior of the autobiographic characters in Updike's stories is not terribly attractive and the writer seems to be aware of this.  Nonetheless, Updike the man continued to engage in behavior that he criticizes in the role of Updike the author.  I couldn't help but wonder why he didn't seem to learn learn much from considering in depth and with such insight his own behavior.  Much of the fiction was about compulsive adultery and it seems that Updike pursued compulsive adultery even as he was showing his alter ego's choices as corrupt and weak.

The book has some curious omissions.  Updike was adapted to film a few times, but the book mentions only The Witches of Eastwick, which was converted to a Jack Nicholson-Cher vehicle.  Why no mention of Too Far to Go?  Adapted from the stories about the Maples (thinly disguised versions of Updike and his first wife), the film features career-best performances by Michael Moriarty and Blythe Danner.  I remember reading that Updike was very taken by Danner but somewhat offput by Moriarty's performance.  Could it have been that he saw in Moriarty some of what he wasn't comfortable with in himself?

Also, given the attention Begley gives to the Rabbit books, it seems odd that Begley neglects to comment on Rabbit Remembered, the novella published in the anthology Licks of Love that serves as a sequel to the series.  It wraps up the Harry Angstrom saga with particular compassion, suggesting that, for all of Harry's transgressions and blundering, he left behind something hopeful.  Curious that Begley makes no mention of the final words Updike wrote about his most famous creation.

These quibbles notwithstanding, I got what I wanted out of this biography, and it's hard to ask for more.