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20th out of 47 books
—
3 voters
U and I
Baker muses on the creative process via his obsession with John Updike.
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
February 4th 1992
by Vintage
(first published 1991)
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Nicholson Baker :
"I wanted my first novel to be a veritable infarct of narrative cloggers; the trick being to feel your way through each clog by blowing it up until its obstructiveness finally revealed not blank mass but unlooked-for seepage-points of passage."
P Bryant :
I just belted and I think killed with my copy of "U and I" the only housefly which has had the temerity or resourcefulness or lack of satnav to find its way into this my sanctum sanctorum. It was a moment imbued with dizzying per...more
"I wanted my first novel to be a veritable infarct of narrative cloggers; the trick being to feel your way through each clog by blowing it up until its obstructiveness finally revealed not blank mass but unlooked-for seepage-points of passage."
P Bryant :
I just belted and I think killed with my copy of "U and I" the only housefly which has had the temerity or resourcefulness or lack of satnav to find its way into this my sanctum sanctorum. It was a moment imbued with dizzying per...more
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‘It has done me a favour, that review, because it’s a review like few others. It’s an act of homage, isn’t it? Nicholson Baker
If ever there was a book that begged to be discussed prematurely, a book that pleads to be mocked in what I believe is the goodreads catchphrase 'a parody homage', this is it. And yet, maybe it has already been done? Could one live down the embarrassment? Firstly to have done what's been done before, secondly to have one's friends know that you don't even read their work...more
If ever there was a book that begged to be discussed prematurely, a book that pleads to be mocked in what I believe is the goodreads catchphrase 'a parody homage', this is it. And yet, maybe it has already been done? Could one live down the embarrassment? Firstly to have done what's been done before, secondly to have one's friends know that you don't even read their work...more
10 likes · like · see review
"I simply could not formulate a first sentence that felt interesting and properly heterogenous and yet acceptably free from Updike's influence" (174).
Well, try any sentence.
Okay, okay, I get that that's the point. I understand Baker's desire for honesty, and I think he is certainly honest (if simultaneously selfish, childish, and indulgent). Admittedly, I haven't read any Updike, but Baker's thoughts on mediocrity, measuring up to an idol, and leaving a mark are interesting enough without that c...more
Well, try any sentence.
Okay, okay, I get that that's the point. I understand Baker's desire for honesty, and I think he is certainly honest (if simultaneously selfish, childish, and indulgent). Admittedly, I haven't read any Updike, but Baker's thoughts on mediocrity, measuring up to an idol, and leaving a mark are interesting enough without that c...more
Oh this is absolutely sublime! Baker, Baker, candlestick maker! But. I have a little problem dishing out a terse, considered and witty review, howevs. Reason? I read so much there is SIMPLY NO TIME to write all these reviews. Look, I have a life! Don’t believe me? Well . . . you’re right, I’m clearly not a high-flying fashionista (tweed is cool, right?), but I have OTHER THINGS TO WRITE! I’m supposed to get cracking on a synopsis for a new novel this weekend, and it is currently 21.43 GMT. This...more
16 likes · like · see review
It's very difficult to put into words the beauty of this book, or figure out precisely what kind of book it is. It's ostensibly a book about John Updike, but in reality it has to do with Nicholson Baker's bizarre obsession with John Updike, or with Nicholson Baker's psyche in general. And what an amazing psyche it is! Wretched, grasping, obsessed with fame, completely and totally incapable of seeing only one side of any given sentence or word or syllable. On paper, this seems like a terrible cas...more
This is Nicholson Baker's love-book to John Updike which was written years before Updike died in 2009 and was inspired by Baker reading Donald Barthelme's obituary and deciding that Updike deserved to have his uber-praise while he could still read it.
In this book, written in 1991, Baker hilariously compares and contrasts his own paltry body of work (at that time) with Updike's and, of course, finds it sorely and pitifully lacking. Typical of Baker, there are many very funny lines and the story a...more
In this book, written in 1991, Baker hilariously compares and contrasts his own paltry body of work (at that time) with Updike's and, of course, finds it sorely and pitifully lacking. Typical of Baker, there are many very funny lines and the story a...more
Good book to read if you have two hours to kill waiting for the fucking night owl bus and its mid-April and 40F and raining. For anyone who has had a distant hero-worship/kill the father literary complex and finds they are constantly comparing the most minute biographical data of the object of said obsession with themselves, this is probably a cathartic read. Baker's anxiety over Updike seems to give credence to Bloom's thesis, but fuck that guy, like Shakespeare wasn't ripping off his predeces...more
Amusing, smart-assed, quotable, and focused: if you like any of these qualities in a book that's about a writer and another writer, U and I will be enjoyable. It can also be tiresome, too clever, and smug, but that's also written into the book, perhaps both deliberately and accidentally. Those things are not separable from its more interesting qualities. Definitely worth reading.
About a year ago I became obsessed with watching Charlie Rose interviews with Updike on Youtube. He was just a wonderful, genteel man, who could express considerate thoughts on any subject. In the interviews with Charlie he is often smiling, a writer who ENJOYS questions, is HAPPY to elaborate on his ideas. He is never overbearing, often funny, and always polite, while remaining convicted. I higly recommend watching these.
My Updike fixation began with wondering why his words were on the back of...more
My Updike fixation began with wondering why his words were on the back of...more
Mar 18, 2010
Ben Bush
added it
I recently read David Shield's Black Planet which shares some structural DNA with this book, although in some ways Shield's subject matter is a little spicier. Nicholson Baker's thoughtful chatty persona is always good company but this one didn't quite blow me away. He has a great bit about the phoniness of characters using metaphors from their jobs to describe the things around them and how actually people tend to do the reverse to see the whole world inside the things that they do at work. I t...more
I should have heeded the jacket blurb: "Baker's latest book reaches glorious new depths of shallowness". This 'book' confirms the suspicion induced by the vapid emptiness of 'Mezzanine' - Baker is a smirking ass.
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Much of what I had to say about this is in my Rabbit Is Rich comments but I will reiterate how much I enjoyed it, as I have everything I have read by Baker. His obsessions are various and entertainingly discussed - one is whether he will ever be considered a "genius" on the level of John Updike. I suppose anyone who engages in any sort of artistic production must yearn to be regarded as at least remarkable and out of the ordinary. Baker is probably not a genius by most standards but he stands in...more
I was happy to find this book yesterday at a church rummage sale. For a long time-- in spite of my affection for The Mezzanine, and the fact that certain ideas from The Size of Thoughts visit me pretty regularly-- I did not want to read U and I because of my antipathy toward Updike. I should have realized that it is as much about Updike as The Mezzanine is about buying shoelaces. It is really about writerly striving and anxiety, and as such, I found it hilariously funny. O, the vanity! O, the ri...more
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I can't believe that this is a book. Even as a book, it's more like an idea for a book; like something a writer would just talk about writing someday, with his writer friends, and his whiskey. But no, there it is, on my shelf, a book. I'm shaking my head still, trying to figure out why. Why it's a book, I mean. It isn't that it's terrible. It's just that it's so diffuse, so hardly there at all. I keep thinking that I heard someone tell me, at a party or somehwere, that he was going to write a bo...more
Little did I know before reading this gem that Baker had already treated fiction and literary criticism in as original and hilarious way as he did poetry in "The Anthologist". Not only that, but now I have to go back and read as much John Updike as I can--Updike lost me after "The Coup", although I did briefly attempt to read "Brazil". Thanks, Nicholson Baker, because now I also have to read those of your books I have not yet read, and I owe it to you to review those I already have read...
1 like · like · see review
A highly eccentric essay about what the works of John Updike mean tithe author. When Baker admits that he hasn't read most of Updike's work and will not revisit the works he has read, I knew this would be very different from the usual tributes to influential writers penned by those who have felt their influence. It made me want to go back to the Updike I've read and search out those I haven't. This book isn't for everyone of course, but I enjoy Baker's granular, stream of consciousness prose in...more
Sep 16, 2008
Amanda
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Not Sure
Recommended to Amanda by:
the catalog
An enjoyable read. More autobiographical antics from Baker who is becoming my favorite author. He starts with talking about Don Barthelme and wantign to write about him in the living, the difference between a contemporary writers work while living and the tone it has in death, and then concludes with a hundred pages of moving through an obsession with John Updike. Whom I have never read, but whom Baker has barely read. He creates as a reviewer from memory and acknowledges the merit of his memory...more
I picked it up because I like his wring AND I like Updike (the "subject" of the book) but I'm not sure that fans of NB or JU will like it for those reasons.
I did. Of course, I also made a drive once in my undergrad days to Cornish, NH to try to connect with JD Salinger, so I know something of his book's landscape.
I did. Of course, I also made a drive once in my undergrad days to Cornish, NH to try to connect with JD Salinger, so I know something of his book's landscape.
I do not like John Updike AT ALL but I liked this book about him as a larger presentation of fandom in general and literary obsession in particular. I think I would have liked it more if I liked Updike; as it is, it managed to hold my attention and gave me a lot to think about, which is impressive.
This book is majorly meta. It attempts to understand John Updike as a person almost exclusively through his books. I think it involves several failed interview attempts as well. Baker is an efficient writer with great pacing and perspective.
The author writes about his literary hero John Updike and his obsession when contemplating whether he can or does come up to the Updike standard of writing. Funny in places, particularly the meetings between the two writers.
An utterly brilliant book from beginning to end. As poignant as anything I've ever read, especially with the recent loss of U. I have an early hard bound edition that I treasure with all my heart.
Navel gazing at its finest, though sometimes I appreciated his sense of humor. Maybe I would've been more engaged if I'd ever read anything by John Updike except "The A & P."
i remember one sentence from this book "a vast dying sea of boredom" but i cant remember if the sentence belongs to baker or updike. was couples updike or baker? :P
This book's conceit grew increasingly annoying as the book wore on, which is a shame, because Baker is a good writer. Also, I hate Updike.
A little too much for my tastes. Is it possible the dude has low self-esteem? That he is a bit of a poseur? I write about the book here and I would love for you to read about it:
http://mewlhouse.hubpages.com/hub/A-S...
http://mewlhouse.hubpages.com/hub/A-S...
basically a very informal/meandering disquisition about updike and his influence on baker. very funny, great writing.
Getting into the mind of a stunningly honest and brilliant writer, who is prying into his John Updike addiction. Every page is a dessert!
I remain extremely skeptical of Baker having read three of his books and not having been thrilled by any of them. I'm hoping The Size of Thoughts will please me more. Given that I'm not a fan of Updike perhaps I was predisposed to dislike the book, but there was definitely a moment herein where Baker claims not to be showing off when, in fact, that's exactly what he's doing. And that's probably where my patience ran out.
Also, Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage is a funnier and more interesting explo...more
Also, Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage is a funnier and more interesting explo...more
Love NB love his quips but that was a lot of work and I'm still not racing to the library to check out any John Updike.
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Nicholson Baker is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. As a novelist, his writings focus on minute inspection of his characters' and narrators' stream of consciousness. His unconventional novels deal with topics such as voyeurism and planned assassination, and they generally de-emphasize narrative in favor of intense character work. Baker's enthusiasts appreciate his ability...more
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