The later and great John Updike was known as a master of the fiction of bourgeois couples in mostly small town America. The genius he brought to the dialogue, internal monologue and the casual forms of behaviour between individuals in such a milieu is certainly not to be under-estimated and it brought him praise, awards and honours throughout his lengthy career. However, that talent did have its limits: in his greatest work (arguably), the Rabbit novels, the quality dips noticeably in the second episode in which Updike broadens the action to try to account for the ups and downs of the late 1960s, especially compared to the brilliance of the other books
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