Joseph O’Neill, author of last year’s highly regarded novel, “Netherland” — one of the finest contemporary novels about New York City and one of the few novels “about” 9/11 worth reading (my very short list would also include “Saturday,” by Ian McEwan and “The Emperor’s Children” by Claire Messud) — writes of the debt owed Updike by contemporary writers. For O’Neill, “The death of John Updike is an instant literary disaster.”
Why Updike Matters (via Granta)
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the loss of John Updike makes me wonder if the literary world is being replenished at the same rate that it’s losing such great writers