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U & I: A True Story

Paperback

Main Details

Title U & I: A True Story
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Nicholson Baker
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback
Pages:192
Dimensions(mm): Height 193,Width 130
Category/GenreBiographies and autobiography
Literary studies - from c 1900 -
Literary studies - fiction, novelists and prose writers
Modern and contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
ISBN/Barcode 9781862070974
ClassificationsDewey:813.54
Audience
General
Edition New edition

Publishing Details

Publisher Granta Books
Imprint Granta Books
Publication Date 12 January 1998
Publication Country United Kingdom

Reviews

Kirkus Review US:The "U" is John Updike, the 'T' is Baker, the upshot is a narcissistic rumination by an essayist and novelist (The Mezzanine, 1988; Room Temperature, 1990) on his nonrelationship with "the model of the twentieth-century man of letters." It began on August 6, 1989, when Baker, musing on the recent death of Donald Barthelme, realized that one day the shroud would cover an even greater literary hero - John Updike. What to do? Surely now was the time to let the world know how he valued this man. Surely nearly 200 pages of dreams, digressions, puns, self-ridicule, and self-congratulation would please the world, or Updike, or someone. Surely page-long sentences and four-page-long paragraphs would show his admiration. Surely somebody would be glad to learn that Baker "never successfully masturbated to Updike's writing" (although Iris Murdoch's words send him over the edge), or that he dislikes the ideas of Harold Bloom (whom he admits he hasn't much read). What a pity it is - for in this silly sickly sticky mess twinkle many bright nuggets, for instance, that "the metaphorical sense, along with the flea-grooming visual acuity that mainly animates it, fades in importance over most writing careers." Baker can write with great wit and style - the problem is that here he's writing to and for himself. I.O.U. a better book. (Kirkus Reviews)