Bech is Back

Andre Deutsch. This is a first British edition of this 'Bech' novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winner Updike, published by Andre Deutsch in 1983. The book measures approx. 22 x 15 cms (9" x 6") and has 195 pages. The condition of the dusjacket/book is, in my opinion, very good/very good. The dustjacket is complete, with minor rubbing and a little tanned on the back. The book's covers are sound and the binding tight. The text is clean and bright. The book is ex-library, so there are stamps on the copyright page and signs of a removed label on the front fixed endpaper. It also looks as if one of the front free endpapers has been removed. But still a neat book, all-in-all. From the sleeve notes: 'Last heard from twelve years ago in 'Bech: a Book', the peripatetic and (in his own words) "moderately well-known American Jewish writer" Bech is back, with seven wonderful new chapters from his life. We see him suffering a variety of authorial illuminations, roaming a number of third-world countries as cultural ambassador, turning fifty in a confusing blend of civic and erotic circumstances while publicizing himself (he hasn't written a word in years) in Australia and Canada. We see him marry and travel with his Episcopalian bride to Israel, where she falls in love with the land, and to Scotland, where he does. And mirabile dictu, Bech writes a book. And it's a best seller! The problems of illusion and reality, of fame and art, and of fidelity to oneself and to others are all considered in these sketches of a hypothetical post-modernist who inspires in Updike a special affection and admiration. From the era of Vietnam to the sagging end of the seventies, Bech's aesthetic embarrassments reveal truths about his trade and our times.' . Very Good. Original Cloth. First British Edition. 1983. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.