Items related to Seek My Face
John Updike’s twentieth novel, like his first, The Poorhouse Fair, takes place in one day, a day that contains much conversation and some rain. The seventy-nine-year-old painter Hope Chafetz, who in the course of her eventful life has been Hope Ouderkirk, Hope McCoy, and Hope Holloway, answers questions put to her by a New York interviewer named Kathryn, and recapitulates, through stories from her career and many marriages, the triumphant, poignant saga of postwar American art. In the evolving relation between the two women, interviewer and subject move in and out of the roles of daughter and mother, therapist and patient, predator and prey, supplicant and idol. The scene is central Vermont; the time, the early spring of 2001.
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Review:
A meditation on art, aging, and memory, John Updike's Seek My Face is the fictional equivalent of a PBS documentary on postwar American art. Seventy-nine-year-old Hope Chafetz, a painter of merit but, most importantly, wife to two major American artists, allows a young journalist named Kathryn to interview her for an online magazine. Having expected perhaps a two-hour talk over coffee, Hope is dismayed to find that her guest has brought sheaves of questions, a tape recorder, and the kind of scrupulous attention to detail--even sexual detail--that Hope would rather avoid. She gives an entire day to Kathryn, who, like memory itself, seems oblivious to Hope's need to eat, rest, or breathe fresh air.
About the Author:
Seek My Face draws on the story of Lee Miller and Jackson Pollock, the model for Hope's first husband. These are the best parts of a slow, sumptuous, and intricately detailed novel that lacks any significant action except in retrospect. Hope's second husband is depicted as an amalgam of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, and Wayne Thiebaud--a useful survey of the period, but not compelling characterization. One can sense the author folding in important art-historical points and details toward the end, like last-minute ingredients in a cake that may be too heavy to rise. Readers who stay with Hope and Kathryn through the day, however, will be rewarded with a gorgeous, resonant, and almost antimodern ending. --Regina Marler
John Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954 and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal. In 2007 he received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Updike died in January 2009.
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- PublisherHamish Hamilton Ltd
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0241141982
- ISBN 13 9780241141984
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Rating
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Seek My Face
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ISBN 13: 9780241141984
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Seek My Face 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 # 7719-9780241141984
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Used; Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Ex-library book with stamps on the first page, it is also likely to have a small shelf number sticker on the spine. Missing jacket. The dust jacket of the book is missing. Seller Inventory # CHL9723916
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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 # 6545-9780241141984
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Book Description Gut/Very good: Buch bzw. Schutzumschlag mit wenigen Gebrauchsspuren an Einband, Schutzumschlag oder Seiten. / Describes a book or dust jacket that does show some signs of wear on either the binding, dust jacket or pages. Seller Inventory # M00241141982-V
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SEEK MY FACE Paperback Novel (John Updike - 2003)
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. SEEK MY FACE Paperback Novel - 2003 - Condition : Very Good. Seller Inventory # ABE-1668222885924
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. ALL ITEMS ARE DISPATCHED FROM THE UK WITHIN 48 HOURS ( BOOKS ORDERED OVER THE WEEKEND DISPATCHED ON MONDAY) ALL OVERSEAS ORDERS SENT BY TRACKABLE AIR MAIL. IF YOU ARE LOCATED OUTSIDE THE UK PLEASE ASK US FOR A POSTAGE QUOTE FOR MULTI VOLUME SETS BEFORE ORDERING. Seller Inventory # mon0000666038
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket. Very good condition. First edition, first printing. Very minor wear to leading corners of jacket and a couple of faint marks to jacket. Boards are excellent. Slight tanning to edges of pages but contents are clear throughout. TA. Used. Seller Inventory # 514415
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Seek My Face. First Printing
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. London. Hamish Hamilton/Penguin. 2002. First Edition/First Printing. (1 on copyright page above First Published 2002). Hard Cover. Burgundy boards with gilt spine titles and no wear. Prelims and text block are aged and toned but other than this have no wear. Unclipped dust jacket has some shelf wear to the top edge but no tears or other wear. Presents as attractive copy. The story takes place on one day in Vermont in spring 2001. The 79-year-old painter Hope Cafetz answers questions put to her by a young New York interviewer, Kathryn, and recapitulates, through the story of her own times, the triumphant saga of post-war American art. Seller Inventory # FEB23042
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Book Description Condition: Used. Seller Inventory # 261784054
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