Bech at Bay: A Quasi-Novel

Bech #3

by John Updike

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.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Humor, The United States Of America, Novels, Short Stories, Literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 1998

About the author

John Hoyer Updike was an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit Remembered). Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, having published 22 novels and more than a dozen short story collections as well as poetry, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since the 1950s. His works often explore sex, faith, and death, and their inter-relationships.

He died of lung cancer at age 76.

Reviews

[Nood-Lesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decisioni e spazio, sta a voi scegliere cosa merita

Li ho suddivisi in due anni e ora li ho portati a termine; i Bech non sono i Rabbit, sono assai più intellettuali. Henry Bech è uno scrittore ebreo fittizio che tira in causa colleghi veri come Roth, Malamud, Bellow (la triade, ma non quella gobba). Updike nei suoi panni conserva una sana, raffinata, divertita ironia. È un maestro nel tenere questo registro, prolunga il piacere da una pagina all’altra, sembra che scriva con il sorriso sulle labbra inducendolo in chi legge.
“Bech in scacco” è composto da 5 novelle a sé stanti. La mia preferita è stata “La ricompensa svedese” che si apre così

La predilezione dell’Accademia svedese per le nullità pittoresche e i polemisti anti-sistema, classici destinatari dei suoi premi nati dalla dinamite, ha oltrepassato i confini del capriccio e assunto, con quest’ultima selezione, una dimensione sconcertante. Se era infine arrivato il momento di tornare a eleggere un vincitore americano, la scelta di ignorare candidati solidi come Mailer, Roth e Ozick – per non parlare di Pynchon e DeLillo – in favore di questo superato fautore della scrittura elegante, la cui scarna opera non è nemmeno, come per Salinger, frutto di una maestosa astinenza da ogni forma di pubblicazione, può essere letta solo come un affronto premeditato.

e poi circa a metà viene rincarata la dose

Stoccolma, sparpagliata sul suo arcipelago baltico, scintillava di freddo. Le donne svedesi sfoggiavano gote accese di sangue sopra colletti di lupo ed ermellino mentre le loro teste dorate attraversavano le strade alla moda, tappezzate di ristoranti e antiquari, di Gamla Stan, la città vecchia. Bech fu portato a pranzo in un celebre ritrovo di scrittori, il Källaren Den Gyldene Freden, assieme ad alcuni esponenti, assai pettegoli, dell’Accademia svedese. «Sembrava un testa a testa», gli confidò uno di loro, un uomo piccolo, calvo e ammiccante, famoso per una serie di racconti ambientati nel Värmland che ricordavano Selma Lagerlöf, «tra Günter Grass e Bei Dao, con Kundera come terzo incomodo. Tu eri nella lista solo perché c’era chi temeva che un americano più credibile potesse vincere. E invece hai vinto tu, furfante che non sei altro! Sono convinto che i voti a tuo favore siano stati una protesta contro il socialismo. Come vedi, da queste parti la qualità della vita è alta, ma per qualcuno le tasse sono troppo gravose».

Updike per coloro che non l’avessero mai letto è uno capace di scrivere
«Uno legge proprio perché non ci sono decisioni da prendere, si è già occupato di tutto l’autore. È quello il privilegio».
E’ un privilegio leggere autori come lui, le decisioni di Pynchon e DeLillo -per non parlare di Wallace- le lascio volentieri agli amanti della letteratura big-bubble (mastichiamo, mastichiamo bubble-gum).
Piacevole anche la novella Bonus conclusiva “L’opera” (1999) in cui Bech racconta della presenza di alcune sue vecchie fiamme ai reading successivi alla vittoria del Nobel. I reading sono intervallati dai ricordi delle frequentazioni giovanili di quelle donne.
Non ho apprezzato altrettanto la deriva semi pulp di “Bech in nero”, dove l’autore e la sua giovane compagna escogitano modi fantasiosi per uccidere i critici letterari troppo severi nei confronti dei romanzi di Bech. Ad ogni modo l’ironia, per quanto venata di nero, è presente anche in questa novella.
Mi sono segnato un passaggio che vale per tutto l’Updike che ho letto (ed è parecchio) e che potrebbe aiutare chi è titubante nei suoi riguardi:
Quello che scrivo non è pornografia; cerco semplicemente di dare alla componente sessuale della vita lo spazio che merita
Nessun autore va letto per forza, men che meno John Updike, uno che trova più spudorato parlare d’amore che non raccontare i suoi personaggi come lo fanno o come lo vorrebbero fare.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read the first two in the Bech series, but you don't really need to. This is only a novel of "sorts", as it's connected short stories about the fictional writer Bech. I found the first part about him traveling through Eastern Europe a bit slow, but, of course, very well-written. It got better. The story about killing all the critics who gave him bad reviews back in the day, was the most enjoyable. It was so absurd, over the top and just plain fun.

[Eric Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best of the three Bech books. The seemingly obligatory travel sketch is mercifully short, and the rest of the book is amazing. It's been a long time since a book made me laugh this hard. Bech becomes president of an American Academy of Arts & Letters-like organization, where he presides over the bickerings of perfectly-rendered satirical portaits of senile eminence; is sued for libel by, and during the trial nurses a filial love for, an aging Hollywood mogul; murders (or induces the suicides of) several adverse reviewers; is blackmailed into impregnating his accomplice in those crimes; and wins the Nobel Prize. I can see myself re-reading this very soon.

[Stephen Hoogerhyde · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, not as good as the two earlier Bech books. "Bech Presides" was a too lengthy shot at the chattering classes of the literary world. "Bech Pleads Guilty" was based on an actual lawsuit involving Updike. "Bech in Czech", according to biographer Adam Begley, was lifted almost whole from an experience Updike had in visiting Kafka's grave. "Bech Noir" was interesting, although somewhat out of character for both Bech and Updike (and perhaps that in itself made it interesting). "Bech and the Bounty of Sweden" is his skewering of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in literature to lesser lights while ignoring perhaps more deserving writers.

As always with Bech, there is far more rumination than dialogue, which makes for some very long sentences and very long paragraphs. And as always with Updike, his amazing facility with the English language and extensive vocabulary are on display as well.

[Harold Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bech at Bay" is the last of Updike's Bech trilogy, tales of the life of his libidinous "Jewish" author-persona.

After three books, I still have not accepted Bech as a genuine, successfully-realized literary character, much less an authentic Jewish author. I'm still not sure why Updike chose to emphasize this character's Jewishness or supposed New York origins, except possibly to distance him from Updike's own persona, or out of envy of the New York Jewish intelligentsia.

That said, "Bech at Bay" was an enjoyable read. For me, the volume started slow, with another unnecessary tale of Bech's European travels, this time to Czechoslovakia, apparently intended mainly to remind us of Bech's Jewish consciousness. The book picked up interest with a story of Bech accepting an appointment to preside over the aging remnants of "The Forty" -- an honorary organization of writers, composers and other artists, a society that subsequently squabbles bitterly over past and contemporary artistic values and whether the society should continue or dissolve (and thereby whack up a juicy endowment among its members). This is followed by a tepid and unrealistic account of Bech being sued for libeling a Hollywood agent, and suffering remorse in the process for the fellow Jew who sued him. The penultimate chapter, "Bech Noir," is a bizarre but imaginative and amusing recounting of an aged Bech's finding ways to murder, at very long distance, all the critics who have wronged him in his long career, and is written in a "noir" style. The final chapter finds Bech at age 73 siring a child, winning the Nobel Prize, being found unworthy by his peers of that honor, grappling with what a writer in his position should say in his acceptance speech, and delivering the speech with his daughter Golda in his arms.

Bech at Bay is probably a scootch less than four-star material, but only a scootch IMHO. For those who think about and love literature other than silly page-turners, value the literary life, and prize thoughts more than hunky vampires, it's a very good read. There's a lot to criticize, but through it all there are some very interesting thoughts about real literature and insights into the literary mind.

[Owen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I suffered through this book solely to feel justified in writing a scathing review. why do creepy old writers give us characters that are creepy old writers who are incredible sexually successful in spite of age, looks, charm and paunch? Do they think we want to read about this? I found Bech to be my second lowest rated protagonist, barely squeezing by Leopold Bloom, the public masturbating flashing Loyalist in Dublin (which may something of my character because by the end Bech is a serial killer blackmailed into having an infant at 76 by a 26 year old). I really hated this book and it colored my feelings on Updike dramatically. This book sucked real hard.

[Mary K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read 2 or 3 of Updike’s books years ago and loved them, although I don’t think they were in the Bech series. So I don’t know if my taste changed or if I just am not into this series (or this particular book). Updike REALLY comes off as pretentious here. He’s clever now and then but mostly it felt as if he was just showing off his range of knowledge. Plus - and I remember this from his other books - he’s the only author I’ve ever read who can be vulgar without being graphic, and it always feels like it’s the author rather than the character. Ick. I read half the book and didn’t finish.

[Brian Fagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever seen a character act out the writer's evil fantasies towards his critics? I can say that I have, after reading John Updike's "Bech at Bay", the 3rd and final book in his Bech Trilogy. More on that shortly. For me, this was the best novel of the series. Henry Bech is a Jewish American writer who has something of a Woody Allenesque persona - he is neurotically obsessed - in this case with his own physical and mental deterioration and his diminishing ability to write. Somewhat characteristically of an Updike protagonist, he boosts his ego with his sexual exploits.

I'm sure other readers have wondered how autobiographical Bech is for Updike. The obvious similarities are that they are both male writers of a similar age, have been divorced, live on the East Coast, and have duties to make appearances as cultural icons. Updike was not Jewish, and the point has already been made elsewhere that this detail was no doubt intended to discourage comparisons.

The book is divided into five sections, which are in chronological order, and span the ages of 63 to 76 in Bech's life. Updike called the book a "Quasi-novel", but I felt that the flow between the sections was quite good. Among the ideas he explores is the reminder that not all people in the world have access to books - poverty, illiteracy and governmental control being what they are.

As usual, Updike loves to take neutral things and put a sexual spin on them. He gives Bech a kind of a James Joyce "Ulysses"-like free-associative thought pattern. In Czechoslovakia, he is walking with some other Americans. Notice how his thoughts turn the lyrics of "America the Beautiful" into something else entirely:

"The ambassador's wife was walking behind, with the wife of the Akron couple and the fashionable photographer's young assistant; their heels on the cobbles were like gunfire. The wife from Akron, named Annie, was also blonde, scratchy-voiced, and sexy with that leggy flip shiksa sexiness which for Bech was the glowing center of his American patriotism. 'For purple mountain majesties' raced raced through his mind ... 'for amber waves of grain'.

As for a writer's fantasy of literally destroying his critics being acted out by one of his characters which I mentioned above, the section titled "Bech Noir" was a complete hoot. My wife wondered what I was laughing about. Suffice it to say that after reading the obituary of one of his fiercest critics with glee, Bech decides he'd like to read the obits of the rest of the sorry lot, and begins devising ways to make that happen, with hilarious effect.

I was absolutely fascinated to see Updike reference the painter Andrew Wyeth in this book. Probably because of their common origins in Eastern Pennsylvania and their ages, I have often thought of them in the same light. But I think that less obviously but more deeply there could be a connection in my mind that has to do with something shared in their sensibilities. The best similarity I can verbalize is that in their work, I am struck more by a mood than by a subject.

I come away from Updike novels with a different feeling than with other books. A feeling of having been transported with heightened senses.

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

years before N-dubz declared beef wit enyc and 50 took on Cali sparking the West Coast-East Coast feud, the American literary world saw the battle of the new realists and the characterizers, viz. Tom Wolfe, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, and this author, John UpDike, battling out their feuds, with perhaps Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, and Truman Capote all forming shifting alliances, schools of thought, cliques of support and what not.

well, the 15 reviews that this Updike book has received more or less shows who has won the battle, but possibly Updike will rise again. in fact, it was at one point a major notable achievement in literary impersonation for the "quintesential" WASP, Updike, to run such a long running cycle of stories, the 'Bech' cycle, whereupon a curmodgeonly, oversexed Jew, who happens to be a writer, provides counterpoint to Updike's experiences as a novelist and allows Updike to pass social commentary on the changing US.

this is actually very tightly-written; a sort of incident-leading-to-incident pageturner that does fail to reach overwhelming awe-inspiring levels of 'lifechanging novel,' but reads quickly, entertains, and argues the values of the NYC literary elite. Bech, as a member of the literary establishment, in this work participates in committees, attends cultural abroad conferences, goes on trial, and then in the quasi-novel's conclusion, becomes ever more fascinating.

"quasi-novel" because these are linked short stories, so to speak; but novel in a sense because there is an overall arc and the ending redeems weaknesses of earlier sections. 4.5/5.0 a shame this book has passed out of popularity a/k/a a gem waiting to be discovered.

Those that didn't appear, like John Irving and John Fowles, garrulously, Dickensianly reacdtionary in method seemed, like John Hawkes and John Barth, smugly, hermetically experimental. O'Hara, Hersey, Cheever, Updike--suburbanites all living safely while art's inner city disintegrated. And that was just the Johns.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle, although it's never explained, I suppose allows this to pass as a series of vignettes. Like its predecessors, it starts off with Bech on tour. 1986, at 63, in Prague. Philip Roth terrain.

While Bellow seemed the model for Bech in the previous two installments, this final salute to him tips into the homages to his Jewish American peers, as Mailer, Malamud, and Ozick even get shout-outs; and there's cameos by Donald Trump and Woody Allen. However, the novel, whatever constitutes its assemblage here, bogs down in the middle. Between one mistress and another, Bech dawdles and dithers over his taking the floundering helm of the Forty, a creaky cabal of the former bohos and Red machers of the era when CUNY, the Popular Front, and pre-hippie avant-garde ruled a smart set clad in black (same as it ever was if we skip between Fifties and Nineties on in NYC?), once berets, still beards, always leotards and leggings depending on the svelte female forms. Updike as usual in the trilogy has a blast with publicists, publishing and art worlds, pretense, and preening, in a Tom Wolfe way (I kept wondering in fact why that estimable figure didn't get invited, oddly.)

Anyway, the latter part revives in a silly Caped Crusader caper, and a quirky ending that wraps up in 1999 at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. There's a flashback to an L.A. court case that for me as a native didn't reveal anything fresh except for the veracity of the vast view from its downtown court house and the then-empty--as of about two generations ago--post-modern (pre-gentrified and loft-infested) vacuity of its nightly urban panorama at night. It's difficult for an East Coaster to get right the Angeleno atmosphere beyond Hollywood cliches, coastal decadence, or its palm trees.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a hard review to write. I've read John Updike's Rabbit, Run and I think I liked the book, even if I didn't always like the characters -- but for some reason I never posted a review of the book. So I grabbed this eagerly when I saw it and expected great things .... And the first segment, I mostly liked but I had a hard time keeping track of all that the author was writing about. And it got worse -- there were whole swatches where I couldn't make heads or tails about what Bech was doing, what he was thinking about and why. Was it me? Was I tired?

So I put the book down and tried after getting a good night's rest and no better luck. Then I got to the second to last section and I really didn't know what I was into because this was not just an elderly has-been writer crabbing about his literary career and his life (which I figure was the main theme but I could be wrong)but an angry old man actually doing something that he should only be thinking about and not acting upon. It was a bridge too far.

Then the last segment came and it was actually sweet (in a weird way) and I understood everything.

But overall, I'm not so sure. I sure couldn't recommend this.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious account where beck, now an old man, gets vicarious revenge for john updike by a) killing off his reviewers, b) inheriting a fortune, c) yielding to the importunities of a young assistant to impregnate her, and, best of all, d) winning the nobel prize by default

for readers who have read all the way through the beck series, this novel makes it all worthwhile.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

"That a negative review might be a fallible verdict, delivered in haste, against a deadline, for a few dollars, by a writer with problems and limitations of his own was a reasonable and weaseling supposition he could no longer, in the dignity of his years, entertain."

Love that bit.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Antihero, and Updike's alter-ego; Bech is apathetically Jewish, a bachelor (later a husband and stepfather for a time, and finally a father in old age), and famously unprolific.

[Freddie the Know-it-all · Rating 1 out of 5]

I Sure Am Glad ...

... I'm not a Shiksa. I'd be afraid to walk down the street -- well, of Brooklyn anyway. I swear, it's all these Chiselers can think about is Shiksas. Remember that the next time you watch a Woody Allen movie, it'll all make more sense to you. It's their number one fantasy and why not make it come true if you are the guy making the movie?

I know that when I went to the Big City in 1972 and met these characters for the first time, I was amazed at how obsessed with Shiksas they were. Where I come from, you'd be really unpopular if all you could talk about was chasing girls. In fact, we'd all think it was a decoy, to throw us off the scent: that you're a Queer or something. (Even though we didn't really believe there really was such a thing as a Queer, not really.)

At the half-way point I thought this thing was finally gonna get good, but it only lasted a dozen pages or so and then it was back to some 76-year-old Chiseler chasing Shiksas.

If you never tire of reading about horny guys and all the Shiksas they can pull, read Updike. It'll make you feel like Chopped Liver (I think that's their word for Liverwurst), but it'll be an eye-opener. It will make it clear why places like Hollywood and Movie Studios and ... well, all the Arts exist. It's a trap to lure Mid-western Shiksas. I guess that's not news. But it's still shocking to watch.

What I do like about these books is the Time Capsule feature. Most writers would be too embarrassed to describe the stupid shit they did in the 70s-80s.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the stories in the first Bech books were mostly about the blocked author’s tours of Eurpoean countries, in “Bech at Bay” we find the author in life events. Sure, the first story is another of his tours that seemed to focus on communist countries, but from there we cross into new territory – Bech is sued, Bech presides over a declining arts honorary, Bech revenges himself on his critics, and Bech deals with a Nobel. For readers from the first stories, these are not as expected, but they illustrate more of his character. My favorite is “Bech Presides”, about Bech’s election to a well endowed group of artists that is slowly eliminating itself. After so many stories where Bech’s only initiative is libido-driven, he flirts with taking action here and finds he likes it. His ability to take action climaxes with the next to last story, "Bech Noir". And then we see in the last story he gets his rewards. And in that last story, he hits his familiar writer’s block in writing his speech, but he is able to rise above it. In this, we see Bech has grown. A nice, well thought ending to this string of stories.

[Steven Paul Leiva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury once told me that the fun of writing stories is you can kill off your enemies. In John Updike's third and final Bech book his alter (if Jewish) ego Henry Bech does just that, causing with full intent the demise of four critics who had been more than unkind to his books. This happens in the long story "Bech Noir" and I kept thinking it might just be a malicious fantasy that Bech would awaken from. But, no, it is all fictionally real. Bech really does it -- and he gets away with it. That is both disturbing and bitterly funny. A serious story not to be taken seriously. It is the penultimate story in the collection, and the last one, "Bech and the Bounty of Sweden," sees this minor major, infamously famous, non-prolific, unfathomably-attractive-to-women writer win the Nobel Prize. Which is pretty funny in itself. One gets the feeling that Updike enjoyed letting off his professional steam via Bech's travels along the literary road. And despite Bech's many human frailties -- I really liked him.

[Raimo Wirkkala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updike winds up his Bech-trilogy with what he calls a "quasi novel". The 5 stories that comprise the book are a bit longer and I suppose this is the quasi justification. There is really very little justification for what the author does with his alter-ego, author Henry Bech, in the penultimate chapter, "Bech Noir". The entire series afforded Updike the opportunity to unload, through Bech, the vagaries that are part and parcel of being a writer in America. This episode, though, comes across as peevish and self-indulgent. Happily, Updike redeems himself and his creation in the final chapter. Taken as a whole, the 'Bech-books' are in the top tier of this author's prodigious output.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Updike's "Bech" books tend to be some of my favorites from his huge body of work. They are witty and satirical, and full of asides that make me chuckle aloud at times. This is the third collection of Bech stories, and while some of it feels like Updike is reaching for a way to bring Henry Bech to a graceful end, there is still enough life left in the old guy. The long piece, "Bech Presides," is a skewering of writers and their foibles. "Bech in Czech" is good, but not as sharp as Philip Roth's "The Prague Orgy." And finally, Updike wraps it all up by having Bech do something the oft-favored Updike never quite achieved: winning the Nobel Prize in literature.

[David Doel · Rating 3 out of 5]

You rape your women as you describe them.
Updike must have had a moment of self-awareness during a scene about Bech (who surely has to represent Updike in this work. Updike, or at least Bech, reminds me of Harvey Weinstein. I got tired of reading about his nocturnal exploits. I cannot imagine a woman enjoying this. There are other reasons to dislike Bech and that leads me to not especially enjoy this novel.

I won't be looking to read the further exploits of Bech and Rabbit.

[Andrew Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of the series, Updike's inward-looking satire of himself and the literary world at the end of the 20th century. I love Updike's flow and narrative style more than just about anyone, but this novel is chock-full of the kind of male-gaze descriptions of female characters that are so commonly and deservedly blasted online. Read his short stories instead.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updike called this a “quasi-novel” but you could say the same about the other two Bech collections. No fall off of quality here, if anything this was the best of the three, though I’ll say that a couple of the situations Bech finds himself in are a bit far-fetched. But, hey, it’s fiction. Updike’s sense of humor is in good form again.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the writing in this book, even though I didn't care for the character of Bech all that much. "Bech Presides" pulled this down to three stars for me-most of the rest I enjoyed quite a bit more.

[Ema · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second books of Updike. I guess he is telling the truth about the world of literature

[Paul Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories more entertaining than others, but still very clever

[Bob Peru · Rating 4 out of 5]

the bech books are among updike’s most entertaining. and that’s no small thing.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first Updike and I am wondering if his other books are this chopped up with unrelated parts. I love some of his language and should have some of his expressions framed.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Updike's "Bech at Bay" is a literary tour de force that delves into the complex world of Henry Bech, a beleaguered Jewish-American author, a character so charmingly crafted that I cannot help but award this book 5 stars.

In this narrative, we find Bech no longer merely combating the blank page, but battling age, relevance, and the changing cultural zeitgeist of the literary world. With clever interweaving of satire, wit, and poignant reflections, Updike extends Bech's life in a way that is both relatable and deeply moving.

The language is, as always with Updike, simply exquisite. His mastery over narrative style and vocabulary shines throughout the book, allowing readers to become utterly immersed in the world he paints. From Bech's struggle with the literary establishment to his unconventional methods of revenge against his critics, Updike's writing remains captivating, reflective, and subtly humorous.

The depth of Bech's character comes to the forefront in this book. He's often hapless and charmingly flawed, yet his yearning for meaning, respect, and understanding is profoundly human. His navigation through the latter stages of his life and career provides a vantage point into the universal fears and insecurities that haunt us all.

Moreover, the book's bold critique of the literary world is both engaging and insightful. Updike doesn't shy away from parodying the very field he was a part of, making "Bech at Bay" an entertaining exploration of the tensions between writers, their work, and their critics.

Overall, "Bech at Bay" serves as a testament to Updike's unique storytelling prowess and his ability to weave profound human experiences into his narratives. I found this book to be both a delightful and a thought-provoking read. It is undeniably a five-star addition to any literary enthusiast's collection.

[Hamish · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story was written in the 80s and the rest in the mid-late 90s, and the contrast is noticeable. In the former, we can still see Updike largely in control of his powers, able to use his prose mastery for good (evoking a time and place in a haunting, vivid way) rather than evil (to evoke stereotypes and describe improbable and creepy sex fantasies). Even in the later stories, you can still gleam little peaks of his genius, but his bad tendencies had become painfully pronounced. I’ve said this before, but it really felt like he was intentionally trying to do more of what he was usually criticized for (“you say I write bad sex scenes? I’ll show you bad sex scenes!”), and he makes so many poor choices. Bech wins the nobel prize?! Bech becomes a murderer (and it’s canon?!?!)?! (Yes, I understand that that one is a parody, but dear god does it miss the mark). If I had to capture Updike’s poor decisions in one sentence, it would be this: The final story is titled “His Oeuvre” and the oeuvre in question is not Bech’s books, but the list of women he’s slept with.

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Bech at Bay," Updike's third Bech book, contains five crisp short stories about the anxieties and desires of Henry Bech, the "moderately well-known Jewish American writer." Updike is as smart and witty here as ever.

In the first story, Bech travels to Communist Czechoslovakia to escape his collapsed personal life and deliver a lecture on "American Optimism." Showered with extravagant praise from Czech writers who have suffered torture and imprisonment, he's overwhelmed by the superficiality of his own work and the tenuousness of his freedom.

The other stories take a decidedly more comic direction. In "Bech Presides," Updike delivers a needling satire of his own generation of elder writers presiding over an overfunded, outdated honorary society that no one else wants to join. In "Bech Noir," Updike plays out the author's dark fantasy of striking back at book reviewers in a series of increasingly outlandish murders. "After 50 years of trying to rise above criticism, he liberated himself to take it personally." (You're just kidding, right, Mr. Updike? By the way, I love all your books.)

Fans will find what they've come to expect from this author, a remarkable ability to satirize and sympathize with ruthless clarity. No other author can have so much fun pampering and skewering himself. It's delightful to see Bech back, again.