From the Noir Files of John Updike

In an interview published May 31 in The New York Times, literary lion John Updike discusses his new novel, Terrorist, which is sure to make a dent in summer reading this season. You can find the interview here.

In the final paragraph, Updike considers his next project, stating, “I see a slightly plump book with a lot of people in it, like Gosford Park. But it’s not a murder mystery because I’m not clever enough to write one of those.”

Perhaps. But Updike did write one excellent story in the late ’90s featuring his character Henry Bech, a perpetually blocked author whose life prevents him from creating anything close to the quality of his debut novel, Travel Light. “Bech Noir” (at least the first version of it) appeared in The New Yorker, the longtime home of Updike’s prose, in June 1998, and was later collected in The Complete Henry Bech and Best American Mystery Stories of 1999, edited by Ed McBain. Any writer who has wanted to silence a critic will appreciate this little gem.