R.I.P. John Updike

We lost John Updike today (actually, yesterday; it is four o'clock in the morning as I write this). It caught me by surprise; apparently I thought he was going to live forever. Yes, he was seventy-six, but he had that long, lean look that some men manage to carry effortlessly into their eighties and nineties. I came to Updike late, for reasons that are too stupid and fatuous to relate now, but I'm so glad I found him. He was a great writer and there is a lot left for me to read. For that I'm grateful, but I'm still sorry to see him go.

John Updike