Seek My Face

A Novel

By: John Updike

Narrated by: Kathryn Walker

A riveting novel that takes place in one day about an elderly painter and the New Yorker interviewing her—from one of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series. • “A brief novel of deep feeling.”—Time

On a day that contains much conversation and some rain, the seventy-eight-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 the story of her own career, the triumphant, poignant saga of postwar American art. In the evolving relation between the two women, the interviewer and interviewee 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 is the early spring of 2001.©2002 by John Updike; (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

“A brief novel of deep feeling . . . What you recall is that reading Updike has always provided the pleasures you hoped were in store when you went through the trouble of learning to read.”—Time

“The premise of Seek My Face is clean and powerful, like a canvas by Barnett Newman. . . . Swirled over [it] is John Updike’s superabundant prose, dazzling strings of looping sentences that wrap these two women in glittering constellations of words.”—The New York Observer

“A rewarding new novel from our reigning master of surprise, the last sequence of which is surpassing in its beauty.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Eloquence and reflection

This is my first Updike. I’m amazed at his way with words—so quotable.

I enjoyed the insights into the art world over the decades, some of which I lived through, barely noticing the vast canvases the author seems to effortlessly absorb. I need to rediscover, and his story inspired that adventure.

I don’t always like the people, their self-aggrandizement and self-loathing. But they are interesting.

Walker is a wonderful performer. She captures the essence of Updike’s people, and addd her own pungent emotion.

I’ll find some more Updike. You can’t beat great writing.

Better than 90% of the pap that passes for writing

Well written beautifully narrated. A very good listen.

Seek My Face

A crashing bore! Certainly not up to Updyke?s usual.