Self-Consciousness

I've never been a huge fan of John Updike, although I admire his writing talent and skill, his perceptiveness, and his compassion for ordinary people. This memoir confirmed all of that and also surprised me in its revelation of the extent to which his fiction draws on his life. ( )

A memoir from one of Americas' great short story writers who was able to astutely chronicle 20th century life.

John Updike wrote a lot of fiction over several decades so he should know a little bit about it when he says he believes that ''most of the best fiction is written out of early impressions, taken in before the writer became conscious of himself as a writer,''. He begins by going to the source of his own early impressions and in this book subtitled "memoirs" he includes six vignette-like essays about his life. The first chapter is familiar to readers of his short stories since in ''A Soft Spring Night in Shillington'' - the first of the six essays - he returns in 1980 to the town in southeastern Pennsylvania where he spent his earliest childhood, and discovers, walking through its streets, that the past cannot after all be recaptured. ''Shillington, its idle alleys and darkened foursquare houses, had been my idea.'' The idea had been stronger than the reality. It is a fascinating journey made more so by my own recognition that my home town is in many ways unrecognizable to me as well. He continues to cover those episodes that had a major impact on his consciousness (thus the title) over the years. For those readers who enjoy Updike's beautiful prose this memoir provides a pleasant journey. ( )

More of a reflection of different aspects of Updike’s life than a steady chronological account, this memoir consists of six chapters.

Updike addresses his early upbringing; his struggles with psoriasis; his issues with stuttering, and other facets of his life. He goes on a bit too long in the section devoted to familial genealogy (probably of main interest to other Updikes), but otherwise I liked getting to know Updike more. In the Updike essay collection Due Considerations, Updike states about Self-Consciousness:

“I have even gone to the trouble, when there was a threat of a biography, of publishing, ten years ago, an autobiography of sorts, Self-Consciousness, describing in sometimes embarrassing detail what seemed to me significiant or curious about my life, as it had been experienced from within. The book has been criticized as a parading of my wounds; but the wounds were mine to parade, and not some callow inquisitor’s.” ( from the essay "On Literary Biography" in Due Considerations, 2008)

lifeisapatchworkquilt.com -
URL: http://lifeisapatchworkquilt.com/blog/ ( )

My 2 cents: I read this mainly to see how he dealt with his psoriasis, and I have to say it was illuminating int hat respect. ( )