John Updike

Word that John Updike has passed. What a chronicler of all the messy things people, at his writing perigee, didn't want to talk about.

I feel so lucky to have sat next to him at a reading. Even though I didn't know it at the time.

I remember that when he showed up at subsequent readings that summer at Skidmore, and the room was crowded, he's quickly take a seat on the stairs, not wanting to get in the way. One time, someone who knew him called "John," and beckoned for him to take his seat. But Updike just raised his hand, smiled, and kept his seat on the stairs.