The Fiction of Philip Roth and John Updike

In many ways John Updike could be termed America’s reigning WASP writer, Philip Roth the chief spokesman for the middle-class intellectual Jew. Although the two writers would seem to have little in common, George Searles’ comparison of their works leads to startlingly fresh in­sights not only into their writings but into contemporary culture as well.

Aside from biographical coincidences and a shared preference for realism, Roth and Updike also treat the same themes: ethnicity, interpersonal relationships, individual moral responsibility and guilt, and a number of secondary issues—the pernicious effects of American material­ism, the importance (and absence) of meaningful work, the diminished status of the modern clergy, and sport in con­temporary life.

Striking differences exist also: in Roth’s work social commentary is pres­ent, but the focus is on the individual, a cultural minority; Updike’s antiheroes are in the cultural mainstream. Roth writes in the first person; Updike, in the omniscient third. In Roth setting is al­most incidental; to Updike it is central. Roth’s real setting is the landscape of the mind; Updike can almost be considered a regional writer.

George J. Searles is on the English faculty at Mohawk Valley Community College.