Tribute posted on May 27, 2009 14:09
John Updike
by Michael Murphy
It is often said that of all sports, golf has produced the finest literature. In recent decades, no one has been more responsible for this high regard than John Updike, arguably America’s greatest all-around man of letters these last forty or fifty years. He was a short story master, novelist, poet, and essayist who turned from one genre to another with fluent grace, great learning, and huge curiosity, exploring the dark and radiant places of both our inner lives and the world-at-large; and tucked away in a small but luminous corner of his wide-ranging work there exist several pieces on golf. He assembled several of these in a volume titled “Golf Dreams.” If you haven’t read it, you are missing a wonderful experience. With his many poetic gifts, Upkike turns golf courses into magic gardens and dangerous caves where we are lifted high and taken low and see ourselves in shifting mirrors. Golf becomes a richer game after you’ve read him.
And like many of us, he had a strong sensitivity to the uncanny, occult, and mystical elements of golf. See, for example, his “Farrell’s Caddie” and “The Pro,” in which you might recognize the startling telepathy and “soul-reading” you’ve experienced while golfing. Or, if I may flaunt it, you might read “Is There Life After Golf?,” his New Yorker review of “Golf in the Kingdom.” I’ve long been flattered that he appreciated the story I told. In a wildly generous note, he said that I’d written “the best book about golf of the 20th century.” How can I help but love him.
Download a PDF file of John Updike's July 29, 1972 review of Michael Murphy's "Golf in the Kingdom" from New Yorker Magazine.
Read John Updike's 1991 short story "Farrel's Caddie" online at the New Yorker Magazine Archive (Registration required.)