Month of Sundays

Rating:
Summary: Hard read, but it's good for you
Review: He is a hard writer to read. His prose is thick and dense, and it doesn't flow all that well. I found myself re-reading paragraphs again and again. The subject matter is interesting; the reverend has lost his faith (did he ever had faith?), and has also lost his morals. He tries to justify his actions in 200-odd pages in a brillian way. Although i felt disgusted by this character (he's a swine), i admire the author.

This was not an enjoyable read. It demanded too much attention from my brain. But i am glad i read something by Updike, and i'll be ready for more in maybe 10 years (long recovery period).

Rating:
Summary: An Uncomfortablely Honest Look @ Sexuality and Religion
Review: I found this book absolutely amazing. Though the Rev. Tom Marshfield is utterly despisable, he is also completely endearing. The prose is masterfully written. I only found it difficult during the first 3 pages. Updikes knowledge of theology impressed me, as well as his indepth treatment of the subject. Updikes juxtapositioning of sex (seen usually as profane) and theology gives this novel its unique edge. Highly recommended reading for anyone who has dared to ask the hard questions of religion and to search them out, and has suffered morally and spiritually as a result.

Rating:
Summary: Imitation Nabokov
Review: I found this perhaps Updike's worst novel, because here, rather than writing as John Updike, he makes an ill-advised attempt to become Vladimir Nabokov. This novel reads like what a college English major might produce just after they had read LOLITA for the first time. Updike's Marshfield is a pallid Humbert. The effort, to reach for what Nabokov did with LOLITA, is transparent. Updike's attempt to be arch, witty, and erotic, like the earlier book, is clumsy. This novel is embarassingly derivative. If you want real Updike, try THE CENTAUR, or the Rabbit series.

Rating:
Summary: Sex and the clergy
Review: The priest Thomas Marshfield writes what amounts to a confession whilst undergoing therapy.

Marshfield (not surprisingly seeing as this is an Updike novel) is a highly-sexed individual - indeed, it is doubtful whether he worships God or sex more. Much of the novel is Marshfield's internal dialogue as he tries to reconcile his obsession with sex with religious doctrine.

I thought that "A Month of Sundays" was a curious work - written at times with wit (which was a bit hit-and-miss) and word play (which I thought was often strained). I thought too, perhaps wrongly, that Updike had been influenced by Nabokov's style of writing.

Although this is a short book, I felt that it tended to drift in places and got weaker towards the end. Interesting, but not one of Updike's best.

Rating:
Summary: you people are crazy
Review: This is a fabulous book. It marries esoteric philosophy and ultimate, base humanity better than any book I've ever read. This combination gives it the ammunition to truly shoot to the core of a reader. And I found it quite easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: you people are crazy
Review: This is a fabulous book. It marries esoteric philosophy and ultimate, base humanity better than any book I've ever read. This combination gives it the ammunition to truly shoot to the core of a reader. And I found it quite easy to read.

Rating:
Summary: Christian Questions
Review: Updike is not usually this difficult to read. In terms of its prose, this is one of his more spectacular, elusive and confusing books. A lot of the time, this book reminded me more of Anthony Burgess than John Updike. What is distinctively Updikian about it is its engagement with certain problems in the Christian faith. Among the questions the book seems to ask are: Is God detectable or undetectable in the fabric of our lives? Why does God apparently allow suffering (that old chestnut)? Above all: what exactly is the relationship between Christianity and sexuality? Is sex sacred or prophane? The book answers and fails to answer all these questions and more in its complex, uncertain unravelling. I myself did not really feel adequate to its challenge and I did find the language pitched too high for me. But it's a fascinating book all the same.

Rating:
Summary: dark revelations from a priest
Review: updike's dark novel of a priest's innermost revelations through his life's journey. not an upbeat read by any means