John Updike

"Our" maple tree

John Updike described his writing style as an attempt "to give the mundane its beautiful due." Updike's masterpiece was a series of four novels about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, which chronicled his life from young adulthood to his death. I read Rabbit, Run when I was still a teenager. Now THAT was an education. Later I read all the sequels, too. The character "Rabbit" was a pathetic person, but intelligent in an observant sort of way. And no one wrote about America in the 60's and 70's better than Updike.

The critics say "Rabbit" reflected Updike's own confusion about the social and political changes of the time. Who knows? Updike was a complex, brilliant man, nothing like "Rabbit." Those novels really stayed with me. How did people know all those things before the Internet? Or, maybe we were better educated and more thoughtful before "it" came along.

I was sorry when Updike passed away last January. Along with his very adult novels, Updike also wrote poetry, including a book for children called A Child's Calendar. It has twelve simple poems that describe the seasons and activities in a child's life. The poem for November made me think of the maple tree across the street. We had a rare day of blue sky when I took the picture.

The stripped and shapely
Maple grieves
The ghost of her
Departed leaves.

The ground is hard,
As hard as stone.
The year is old,
The birds are flown.

And yet the world,
In its distress,
Displays a certain
Loveliness.