Remember John Updike

I never met John Updike, though it would have been a definite treat.  I haven't met a lot of famous authors or seen them in person.  But Updike, who died yesterday, gave a lot of himself in the many books, stories, and articles that he wrote.  As a book reviewer for the Wichita Eagle years ago, it was Updike's novels that gave me most pause; he was a big-time writer, and he was alive.   Who was I to be commenting on his newest book (at that time, it was Roger's Version)?  I felt like a fraud, but I loved his work, and I never tired of teaching his short story, "A & P," about a young man who makes what may be a fateful decision that readers enjoy seeing unfold.  His Rabbit series kept my attention through several novels.  He'll be remembered as someone who "who opened a big picture window on the American middle class in the second half of the 20th century," as noted by the New York Times article on his death.  R.I.P.