Editing John Updike (section)

===United States===
Similarly, Updike wrote about America with a certain nostalgia, reverence, and recognition and celebration of America's broad diversity. [[ZZ Packer]] wrote that in Updike, "there seemed a strange ability to harken both America the Beautiful as well as America the Plain Jane, and the lovely [[Protestant]] backbone in his fiction and essays, when he decided to show it off, was as progressive and enlightened as it was unapologetic."<ref>ZZ Packer, "[https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd Remembering Updike] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302103650/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd |date=March 2, 2014 }}", ''The New Yorker'' online</ref>

The Rabbit novels in particular can be viewed, according to [[Julian Barnes]], as "a distraction from, and a glittering confirmation of, the vast bustling ordinariness of American life".<ref>Julian Barnes, "[https://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd/2.html Remembering Updike] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222214718/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd/2.html |date=February 22, 2014 }}", ''The New Yorker'' online</ref> But as Updike celebrated ordinary America, he also alluded to its decline: at times, he was "so clearly disturbed by the downward spin of America".<ref>Jack De Bellis (ed.), "More Matter", ''The John Updike Encyclopedia'' (2000), pp. 281.</ref> Adam Gopnik concludes that "Updike's great subject was the American attempt to fill the gap left by faith with the materials produced by mass culture. He documented how the death of a credible religious belief has been offset by sex and adultery and movies and sports and [[Toyota]]s and family love and family obligation. For Updike, this effort was blessed, and very nearly successful."<ref name="gopnik" />

Updike's novels about America almost always contain references to political events of the time. In this sense, they are artifacts of their historical eras, showing how national leaders shape and define their times. The lives of ordinary citizens take place against this wider background.