tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post5735636304553124507..comments2024-03-27T06:25:29.002-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `The Day Is a Pageant of Clouds'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-17489931283362417432013-03-15T21:50:30.438-05:002013-03-15T21:50:30.438-05:00I'm approximately your contemporary, I believe...I'm approximately your contemporary, I believe. I didn't discover Updike until my early twenties, but was enchanted thereafter. The passage you have cited from "The Happiest I've Been" also drew an approving notice back in the day from Vladimir Nabokov, who was notably sparing in his praise of those American writers jostling for space in American magazines. I'm personally drawn to the closing cadences of that story.<br /><br />Updike's influence on young writers at the end of his life may have been pernicious (Nabokov certainly ruined <i>me</i> as a prose stylist forty years ago), but I did my own best work in the mid-seventies under the influence of <i>Museums and Women.</i>Rand Careagahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04993454654652802173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-34339384954341339582013-03-12T21:31:23.713-05:002013-03-12T21:31:23.713-05:00I read this in 1989, at the age of 15 (my first Up...I read this in 1989, at the age of 15 (my first Updike) as an attempt to win favor from my English teacher, whose husband (so she said) played poker with Updike on a regular basis. To my surprise, I liked it! Have not read it since, but clearly remember Updike's ruminations on asthma, psoriasis, etc. The aging stuff was probably over my head then, though.<br /><br />Up in my attic, I've got my copy of S-C inscribed by Updike for me (assuming my teacher was telling the truth) in May of 1989. I should dig it out and re-read it, inspired by your post.Phil O.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14499273759083108847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-38616049266389224402013-02-25T13:06:15.089-06:002013-02-25T13:06:15.089-06:00I've never read "The Happiest I've Be...I've never read "The Happiest I've Been," but you've led me to go grab it from the <i>New Yorker</i> archives and take it home with me to read tonight. Looking forward to it!Levi Stahlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11094919454842047688noreply@blogger.com