| Bech at Bay Contributor(s): Updike, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 044900404X ISBN-13: 9780449004043 Publisher: Random House Group OUR PRICE: $14.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 1999 Annotation: Henry Bech, the moderately well known Jewish-American writer who served as the hero of John Updike's previous "Bech: A Book (1970) and "Bech Is Back (1982), has become older but scarcely wiser. In these five new chapters from his life, he is still at bay, pursued by the hounds of desire and anxiety, of unbridled criticism and publicity in a literary world ever more cheerfully crass. He fights intimations of annihilation in still-Communist Czechoslovakia, while promiscuously consorting with dissidents, apparatchiks, and Midwestern Republicans. Next, he succumbs to the temptations of power by accepting the presidency of a quaint and cosseted honorary body patterned on the Academie Franaise. Then, the reader finds him on trial in California and on a criminal rampage in a gothic Gotham, abetted by a nubile sidekick called Robin. Lastly, our septuagenarian veteran of the literary wars is rewarded with a coveted medal, stunning him into a well-deserved silence. It's not easy being Henry Bech in the post-Gutenbergian world, but somebody has to do it, and he brings to the task an indomitable mixture of grit and ennui. "From the Hardcover edition. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Psychological - Fiction | Sagas |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 99090166 |
| Series: Bech |
| Physical Information: 0.56" H x 5.12" W x 8.02" (0.60 lbs) 256 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this, the final volume in John Updike's mock-heroic trilogy about the Jewish American writer Henry Bech, our hero is older but scarcely wiser. Now in his seventies, he remains competitive, lecherous, and self-absorbed, lost in a brave new literary world where his books are hyped by Swiss-owned conglomerates, showcased in chain stores attached to espresso bars, and returned to warehouses three weeks after publication. In five chapters more startling and surreal than any that have come before, Bech presides over the American literary scene, enacts bloody revenge on his critics, and wins the world's most coveted writing prize. It's not easy being Henry Bech in the post-Gutenbergian world, but somebody has to do it, and he brings to the task his signature mixture of grit, spit, and ennui. |