Rating: 
Summary: Inflated Opinion of His Own Place in American Letters
Review: Updike seems to have an inflated opinion of his own place in American Letters. He is not, and will never be, an essential figure in the pantheon of American writers - as, for example, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Melville and Twain are. He is not a first-rate critic as, for example, James Agee and Randall Jarrell are.As far as his dissing Tom Wolfe goes, Wolfe need not worry - his legacy is assured. In the 60's, he gave us "radical chic". In the 80's, he gave us the phrase "The Me Decade" and his classic account of the space program, "The Right Stuff", to say nothing of his spectacular fiction debut, "Bonfire of the Vanities". Now, he has given us "A Man in Full", a worthy successor to "Bonfire", though totally different. Tom Wolfe is The Man. He has his fingers on the pulse of American society like no other writer, and he is a great storyteller to boot.
Rating: 
Summary: Updike rules!
Review: Usually I'd be happy to let Updike fend for himself, but the misguided comments below finally got my goat. His status as a first-rate critic--not to mention a first-rate novelist and essayist--is so glaringly apparent that I must take Mr. Finn's remarks as perverse contrarianism. And that goes double for his loopy defense of Tom Wolfe, whose amusing and observant novels can't hold a candle to the brilliance of Updike's Rabbit Angstrom series. Do you really believe that 100 years from now, old men will be uttering lines from "A Man in Full" on their deathbeds? What an absurdity!
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