- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Open market ed edition (27 May 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0140282300
- ISBN-13: 978-0140282306
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,476,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
After recounting almost every detail of Rabbit Angstrom's mental, spiritual, and (especially) erotic life for almost four decades, John Updike laid his brilliant creation to rest in 1990. Another of his ongoing characters, however, has remained at large--Henry Bech. In Bech at Bay, Updike revives his philandering Jewish American novelist for one last trip through that wringer we call the writer's life. Like his creator, Bech is getting on in years. And although age cannot wither his considerable sexual appetites nor custom stale his cantankerous charms, he is uncomfortably aware of his mortality. In the first episode, during a visit to pre-perestroika Czechoslovakia, the "semi-obscure American author" is taken to view Kafka's grave, and the sight gives him the willies: "It all struck Bech as dumbfoundingly blunt and engimatic, banal and moving. Such blankness, such stony and peaceable reification, waits for us at the bottom of things." His own proximity to the bottom of things is what gives Bech at Bay an extra dose of sobriety. For the first time, Updike's ingratiating impersonation of a Jew--who shares the author's lapidary style, sizable nose, and not much else--is not only supremely amusing but moving.
Which isn't to say that all is gloomy in Bechville. Updike keeps things breezy throughout, as his hero is seduced and subpoenaed, excoriated and honoured, finally, with the Nobel Prize. Only once does the author lose his footing, with "Bech Noir": this world-class nebbish just doesn't cut it as serial killer, and even the prose goes untypically to pot. But otherwise the book is a delight, venting all the nastiness about literary life that Updike always purges from his own more genteel (not to mention Gentile) persona. It's also an elegant meditation on literary being and nothingness. "A character," we are told, "suffers from the fear that he will become boring to the author, who will simply let him drop, without so much as a terminal illness or a dramatic tumble down the Reichenbach Falls in the arms of Professor Moriarty. For some years now, Bech had felt his author wanting to set him aside, to get him off the desk forever." Here Updike proves himself Nabokov's equal in the metafictional sweepstakes--and makes us hope that his doppelgänger will get one last reprieve. --James Marcus, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Bech is back in fine, fierce form in this quasi-novel, the third of Updike's books about the peripatetic Jewish-American author forever embattled by his literary peers, critics, and not a few women.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
It would help, although is not essential, to have read John Updike's previous stories involving Henry Beck before approaching this collection. These fine stories, however, stand out on their own right. They are written with great humour, examining the life of a novelist as he grows old and the consequences this has on both his work and the lives of his contemporaries. The playfulness of an aging Henry Beck perhaps reflects that of the aging Updike so that in one of these stories Beck gains the long overdue Nobel prize for literature (Updike himself is considered to be a possible Nobel candidate) and in another he comically disposes of those troublesome critics who have attacked his meagre output over the years. Overall the stories seem to illustrate that a good character cannot simply be discarded by his creator through old age, and that it is better to grow old disgracefully. A delightful and fun read. A return to form for Updike.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Lively and entertaining. An excellent book
7 Dec 1998
Format:Hardcover
Bech at bay consists of five stories about the life of Henry Bech. He ages from mid-sixties to mid-seventies in the course of the book. The first story has Bech visiting Prague before the comunists have been thrown out. He visits Kafka's grave, hangs out with the ambassador, and talks with the local literary celebs who are still intimidated by the Bolshies. This story is aimless, and the weakest of the five entries. The second is Bech Presides.HB is talked into heading a NY literary organization. It's a brilliant study of cultural trends and hidden motives. It's brilliant, the best of the book. Third, Bech is sued in LA for libel. HB's conflicting feelings about himself and his accuser make this story appealing and engaging. Updike releases rage at unappreciative critics in Bech Noir.(JU, I'm praising the book, no need for vengeance with me.) It's wonderful fantasy at getting back at those who have harmed us. Tip! Use a sponge to seal your mail. Bech wins the Nobel prize in story number five. Bech doesn't know what to say, and uses a Giuliani-like technique at the podium. It's a good story, not great. Overall, stories 1 & 5 are very good. 2,3,4 are brilliant. Please read. Thank you.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Quizzical Quiddities
17 Jun 2001
Format:Hardcover
"Bech at Bay" presents five comic stories about the novelist Henry Bech, starting out with a visit to Communist Czechoslovakia when he is 63 and ending in his acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he is 76 years old (with his infant daughter held struggling in his arms). Through these Bech stories, Updike takes a satirical look at the the Manhattan literary scene, pokes fun at the absurdities of the big city life and even takes a moment or two to ponder the Eternal Verities (but not too seriously). As his life enters its last phase, Bech finds himself in some interesting new situations: president of the The Forty, an intellectual society hopefully modelled on the French Academy but without its sense of self importance; as a caped avenger "ridding literary Gotham of villains" (read critics); as a septuagenarian father. Through all this absurdist comedy, the old Updike magic is constantly with us. Bravo!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Bech is Funny and Sad
31 July 2004
Format:Paperback
How does one best review a literary genius? This is not going to be easy. Updike is an author I discovered in college, but haven't been seriously reading him since a couple years ago. I devoured "Roger's Version" and his latest short stories, and I didn't know what to expect with the latest Bech book. This is the first of the Bech books I have read. What an amazing book. Updike has a way of describing reality that makes it feel more important..almost surreal.
Bech, Updike's alter-ego, runs loose in this one, even resorting to murder of his least liked critics. If you are looking for very DARK humor, here is where to find it. In this pathetic yet somewhat brilliant character, we find some autobiographic hints about Updike himself I'm sure. Some of his dislike of critics is probably projected into Bech's harsh words. And at one point Bech wonders if he is polluting the world with subtle pornography, maybe something the author wonders about from time to time too.
Perhaps the best part of the book is the end when Bech gives a rambling but very interesting Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Sweden. This is something only Updike could write. He rambles on about mortality, religion, relationships and birth and death. Vintage Updike. He is a world class writer of the highest order.
Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
Bech, Updike's alter-ego, runs loose in this one, even resorting to murder of his least liked critics. If you are looking for very DARK humor, here is where to find it. In this pathetic yet somewhat brilliant character, we find some autobiographic hints about Updike himself I'm sure. Some of his dislike of critics is probably projected into Bech's harsh words. And at one point Bech wonders if he is polluting the world with subtle pornography, maybe something the author wonders about from time to time too.
Perhaps the best part of the book is the end when Bech gives a rambling but very interesting Nobel Prize acceptance speech in Sweden. This is something only Updike could write. He rambles on about mortality, religion, relationships and birth and death. Vintage Updike. He is a world class writer of the highest order.
Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"
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