In the Beauty of the Lilies

The plot of "In the Beauty of the Lilies" is as ambitious as the title itself, and in the hands of a lesser author, I daresay the story would've run out of steam by page 30. But this is Updike, an author who could write riveting and gorgeous VCR instruction manuals. The book's scope is grand. It foll......more

Történelemlecke, ahogy az amerikai nagyepika mesterei szokták volt csinálni. Négy generációban átfogott történelmi idő, a huszadik század újvilági krónikája, némi keleti part, némi nyugati part, no meg persze az álmos középső megyék. Mindez összefonódó arcképekben bemutatva. Hadd mutassam be hát a s......more

A door stopper of a book that I kept ploughing through as the author was none other than John Updike (branding helps!); and after ploughing through the first 50 pages, I’m glad I stayed. The novel covers four generations and the middle 80 years of the 20th century in America. Patriarch Clarence Wilmo......more

One of Updike's finest. The thread running through four generations is the inability to maintain a faith, the proliferation of doubt. Even in the end, the resolve of unsupported faith fails the believer. One cannot speed-read Updike. Anyone who tells you they breezed through this book (or many of Upd......more