"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
His title, this time, echoes Queen Gertrude's editorial advice to Polonius: "More matter, with less art." Only reluctantly does Updike assent to our age's appetite for facts, facts, and more facts, with fiction relegated to a kind of imaginative finger bowl:
Human curiosity, the abettor and stimulant of the fiction surge between Robinson Crusoe's adventures and Constance Chatterley's, has become ever more literal-minded and impatient with the proxies of the imagination. Present taste runs to the down-home divulgences of the talk show--psychotherapeutic confession turned into public circus--and to investigative journalism that, like so many heat-seeking missiles, seeks out the intimate truths, the very genitals, of Presidents and princesses.Strong stuff, that last line, especially from the man whom Nicholson Baker called "the first novelist to take the penile sensorium under the wing of elaborate metaphoric prose."
But if Updike's critical investigations tend to stay above the belt, they remain as wide-ranging and elegant as ever. In More Matter, he takes on Herman Melville and Mickey Mouse, Abraham Lincoln and the male body--not to mention the cream of modern cosmology. His formulations on almost any subject seem ripe for the commonplace book. Here he is on sexual appetite: "Lust, which begins in a glance of the eye, is a searching, and its consummation, step by step, a knowing." On the short story: "The inner spaces that a good short story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion." On the austerity of biblical narrative: "The original Gospels evince a flinty terseness, a refusal, or inability, to provide the close focus and cinematic highlighting that the modern mind expects." And finally, on the raw intimacies of John Cheever's published journals:
His confessions posthumously administer a Christian lesson in the deep gulf between outward appearance and inward condition; they present, with an almost unbearable fullness, a post-Adamic man, an unreconciled bundle of cravings and complaints, whose consolations--the glory of the sky, the company of his young sons--have the ring of hollow cheer in the vastness of his dissatisfaction. Comparatively, the journals of Kierkegaard and Emerson are complacent and academic.These sentences neatly unite the author's literary and theological concerns--although the latter topic takes something of a back seat in More Matter--and remind us of the compound pleasures of his prose. In his preface, Updike refers to the book as "my fifth such collection and--dare we hope?--my last." We very much hope not. --James Marcus
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002377506
Book Description Condition: Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # GRP64576853
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. More Matter: Essays and Criticism This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780241140918
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780241140918
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Used; Very Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Seller Inventory # CHL9680671
Book Description Hardback. Condition: VG+. Dust Jacket Condition: VG+ DW. 1st Edition. Book and dustwrapper/dustjacket are in very good plus condition with very minor signs of wear and/or age. SPECIAL POSTAGE RATES APPLY Packed weight 1600g. Seller Inventory # kb292.011
Book Description Condition: Good. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. No dust jacket. Library sticker on front cover. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,1350grams, ISBN:0241140919. Seller Inventory # 9971865
Book Description Hardback. Condition: nrFine. Dust Jacket Condition: VG+ DW. 1st Edition. Books looks unread but has slight browning to top edge. Clean bright entire DW has differential sunning to spine and rear cover (photo on request). Seller Inventory # kb152.002
Book Description Hard Cover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. vi-xxiii, 900pp; light edgewear to d/j; white spine. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 050472
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. A tiny bit shop soiled - otherwise it looks unread and new. A mammoth collection from a voracious reader, and it is interesting to speculate how Updike found the time to dpo anything other than write. A superb collection. It's a shame the publisher used pulp paper. It is already yellowing - or should that be 'embrowning'? I doubt this has been read, and it's as thick as a brick at 900 pages. This is industrial scale journalism, and it is fascinating. Language: eng. Seller Inventory # ABE-1514113355866