The Nature of Things

Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism by John Updike My rating: 4 of 5 stars I've been periodically dipping into this book for months now and finally I feel as though I've read, if not every word, at least enough of them to have formed an opinion. Although I must say that writing a review of a book by John Updike in which he reviewed and offered criticism of the work of other writers is a rather daunting prospect. Updike was, of course, a famous reviewer of books, especially for The New Yorker , in his day. This particular collection was published in 1983 and it won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism that year. Sometime after that - I don't remember when - I purchased it at Barnes and Noble and it has languished on my bookshelf ever since, waiting to be read. Last summer, I decided it was time and so I began and now in the new year I am prepared to mark the book "read." Updike explains the title of his book as an allusion to the critic who doe...