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John Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He is the author of over fifty books, including The Poorhouse Fair; the Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest); Marry Me; The Witches of Eastwick, which was made into a major feature film; Memories of the Ford Administration; Brazil; In the Beauty of the Lilies; Toward the End of Time; Gertrude and Claudius; and Seek My Face. He has written a number of collections of short stories, including The Afterlife and Other Stories and Licks of Love, which includes a final Rabbit story, Rabbit Remembered. His essays and criticism first appeared in publications such as the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, and are now collected into numerous volumes. Collected Poems 1953-1993 brings together almost all of his verse, and a new edition of his Selected Poems is forthcoming from Hamish Hamilton. His novels, stories, and non-fiction collections have won have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award and the Howells Medal. Updike graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year at Oxford's Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of staff at the New Yorker, and he lived in Massachusetts from 1957 until his death in January 2009.
John Updike's 51st book is a very cheerful affair. He has looked at Hamlet and wondered just why Gertrude became the wife of the incoming King Claudius in such a rush. In other words he has taken the spotlight off the moody young Hamlet and turned it on his delightful, and often ignored, mother. This is a tale of modern womanhood, as Gertrude, the daughter of a king and the wife of another, decides to live for herself. Gertrude's husband, King Hamlet, has a brother called Feng (who is later to be Claudius), an interesting romantic freelance, operating mostly in southern Europe, far from the cold flatlands of Denmark. He and Gertrude have a strong attraction for each other, which develops into love, and finally, in middle age, into a rollicking and dangerous affair. Polonius connives in their affair, lending Gertrude his remote country house for their trysts. When the king finds out what has been going on, Polonius's life is just as much in danger as Feng's. It is Polonius who suggests the murder of the king while he is asleep in the orchard. There are many sympathetic acknowledgements of middle age, and one of them is the king's habit of taking an afternoon nap. Also true to Updike's belief that sex should be tackled head on, the affair between the ageing warrior and the 'fat, spoiled, forty-eight year old former princess' (her words), is both ironically and richly described. We are left in no doubt that this is her story, rather than Hamlet's; Hamlet, despite her best endeavours, has always been a supercilious and cold son. The story gathers pace. Ruefully, Gertrude discovers that in kingship her lover loses some of his spark, but she resolves to make this second marriage work. As the book closes, the new king rashly concludes that things are on the up in Denmark: he is looking forward to a close relationship with Hamlet, married bliss and stability. Alas, the action of the play is about to begin. Reviewed by Justin Cartwright, author of Leading the Cheers (Kirkus UK)
