"Updike's scope is rather breathtaking. . . . When I do not know the subject well--as in his finely illustrated art reviews of Bruegel, Dürer and Goya--I learn much from what Updike has to impart. When he considers an author I love, like Proust or Czeslaw Milosz, I often find myself appreciating familiar things in a new way."--Christopher Hitchens,
The New York Times Book Review "If the printed word disappeared, a future race could reconstruct a significant body of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature from Updike's work alone. . . . He writes to converse with us on a high plane but in simple language, often stately and sometimes dazzling."
--Chicago Sun-Times "Updike knows more about literature than almost anyone. . . . He's beyond knowledgeable--he makes Google look wanting."
--Baltimore
Sun