Novelist John Updike, who died last week at 76, has long been known for his writings on art, primarily in the pages of the New York Review of Books, in which he maundered quietly and keenly on time and meaning while issuing considered, tasteful judgments with which we rarely ever agreed. Less well known are his articles for Architectural Digest, fewer in number but equally Updike-ian, four of which AD has posted online in tribute to the late great scribbler.

These are not straightforward architecture reviews: all appeared under the Homes & Spaces heading, so they’re welcome-to-my-study, anecdotal pieces relating his own encounters with buildings in life and fiction. He doesn’t like New York anymore; he finds New England homes strange and mysterious; your own home can be full of surprises; it’s fun to put characters into houses and make them walk around. They’re exquisitely written, of course, and since they’re not supposed to be works of criticism it would be difficult to adduce a particular design preference from them. Evident throughout, however, is the modest architectural conservatism peculiar to American novelists of a certain generation and temperament. Call it the Tom Wolfe Syndrome: erudite crankiness with a dash of romanticism. In Updike’s case, it’s served up cool and observational, and it’s fairly innocuous when it isn’t being provincial or precious. Much like his fiction, really.

John Updike: A Collection of Essays [Architectural Digest]