Couples

John Updike’s book ‘Couples’ is like a manual on how to commit adultery – written by a mischievous devil. The book depicts the amazing civility of couples who are indiscreet in a seemingly normal way. Other cultures in Latin America or in South East Asia, people would not be as civilized or well-mannered as the philandering couples in this New England town. Usually, indiscretion results in hysterical emotion, fights and violence that end in a homicide. In Middle East countries, adultery can result in death by stoning. There is usually a resulting emotional outbreak or violent reaction when the indiscretion is known. At least, that’s my impression coming from an Asian society which is not as ‘enlightened’ in terms of adultery as depicted in John Updike’s book.

The book was written in 1969 and portrays a liberal town where everyone seems to be sleeping with each other. I did not enjoy the book as closely as I would have but skimmed through the pages. There is just too much verbiage from his work that could have been reduced or more efficiently packaged. It’s as if Dylan Thomas or Walt Whitman would write a book full of words that appeal more to its sound than its meaning. There is not much sense in much of the work with regards to the impression, syntax and the way the book progressed. But it is not a bad book and one could grasp the tone even if one is part of that milieu – living in an isolated New England town with white Anglo Saxon protestant neighbors.

But the book does not seem silly but in fact logical in the way the characters think and act. It has a well-crafted plot with some interesting scenes and effective in giving the atmosphere of that particular age. What strikes me is the lack of emotionality except in the sexual act amongst the various characters. Everything from adultery, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, abortion, wife swapping is all discussed in a coherent, matter of fact tone as if it’s normal for well-educated adults. Is this the sign of true maturity and graciousness? Is this the peak of a modern liberal society where emotions are subsumed to a well mannered civility? One wonders if this is the way most people behave or just a minor though perverse subset of modern society.

Updike seems to be a purveyor of wickedness unless he is just writing of the way things really are. It seems that committing adultery is just the most normal thing to do around here unlike in other societies. Perhaps that’s the result of the hippie generation, with drugs, free-love and the sexual revolution. But is it an actual description of reality? I am sure these stories play-out in some sections of the populace, in small communities scattered over the country. My predilection for gossip and scandal led me to this book and I strangely felt suddenly free. I guess this is the objective of most folks; to live life and commit whatever indulgence one desires from other consenting adults. It’s like drug use, where repeated consumption corrupts one’s soul. 

Last night, I watched the Woody Allen film ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona.’ It has similar values as Updike’s couples and may be called modern decadence in Spain. I guess it is liberating to have this free spirit, unencumbered with morality or other hang-ups. It’s like the sixties continued on from John Updike’s ‘Couples’ to Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’ with the latest Hollywood stars appearing in the decline. To the Islamic mullahs in the Middle East, it’s clear evidence that the West has declined with sin and overindulgence. But it’s not so as there are more decent folks around than those who are willing to satisfy there desires to wherever place it brings them. One could say that it’s all in the Declaration of Independence when Thomas Jefferson wrote about the right to one’s ‘pursuit of happiness’. Perhaps it’s the seed that started the decline taking note that Jefferson lived in debt, had slaves, a mistress and illegitimate children.

Due Considerations

John Updike is one of the smartest persons I have ever read. His collection of essays cover a wide range of subjects from literary authors like Marcel Proust, Sinclair Lewis, Orhan Pamuk, Harayuki Murakami and old world artists like Durer and Brueghel. His criticism opened a whole different perspective in understanding writers like Salman Rushdie, Hemingway, Garcia Marquez and the authors mentioned earlier. His breadth of experience and knowledge is like Zeus proclaiming his knowledge from Mount Olympus when compared to writers like Zadie Smith. She is like a young smart boxer similar perhaps to Mike Tyson during his formidable early years but John Updike is like Muhammad Ali confident in his established legend.

John Updike is a smart writer and an earlier essay labeled him a White Anglo Saxon Protestant, New England Brahmin who worked hard in his writing craft and delivering like a thoroughbred.  The article compared him with other American writers of his generation who had Jewish roots and sensibilities; writers like Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Norman Mailer. John Updike did not have their underlying angst derived from their heritage but wrote more from a perspective that was more John Kennedy – like in its Boston bred voice. I had read only a few of his books such as the ‘Widows of Eastwick’ and ‘Roger’s Version’ which provide an erudite but overflowing avalanche of words. His photograph in the article showed him relaxing near a beach (Martha’s Vineyard?) wearing a striped t-shirt, white pants and blue canvas sneakers. He looked like an investment banker rather than a striving writer.

John Updike is also one of the most erotic writers one has read with his sparse but explicit passages. His romantic scenes read like one of those lurid Penthouse letters but combined with a touch of Shakespeare. It’s probably the product of the 60’s liberal attitudes carried down into the present age. His work seems to embody the Kennedy contradiction – souring, noble rhetoric and actions but combined with garish sexual escapades. Come to think of it, it now seems more like Bill Clinton and his milieu, too. Some of his passages are quite good but there is an overindulgence of prose that one is often tempted to skip these parts and move to the juicy bits. Most of his works seem to focus on life in suburbia and the decline of family life by excessive overindulgence.

But his essays are a different matter. His criticism is precise, insightful and erudite that reveals deep reading and understanding. His pieces on his visit to China for example is one of the most penetrating ever but delivered in an off hand casual American manner. His essays betray a worldliness and thoughtfulness that is far from his usual oeuvre. His literary work reeks of middle-class suburban comfort, easy living, intellectual aristocracy and discretion and without the hint of Mailer like life of hard drinking, womanizing and political posturing. It’s more like a retiring academic’s life, in college teaching class, clam bakes in the beach, sailing and a few sexual indiscretions along the way; covered in a tint of elegant artistry.

These are a few sentences of his that bring an insight in the American mind that few writers can deliver. For example, in his piece on John Kennedy’s assassination, he wrote that he was angry at his country upon hearing the news; that his countrymen could kill their president in this manner; like shooting a rat in a bin. Brutal, effective and better in conveying the exact feeling of shock and outrage than anything I have ever read. I have seen a lot about the killing in both books and films and documentaries, both elegant and poetic but these works never expressed the plain brutality and feeling of helpless anger. I guess this is the charm of John Updike who is like Sinclair Lewis in his workman like devotion to writing but did not have the usual writer’s demons that may have produced great world wide masterpieces but instead churned out an elegant output of prose that effectively serve to entertain and educate. Perhaps his works is not for the multitudes but for elite pondering their decline.