The Coup

John Updike's prose is poetic. I'm afraid I have no clue at to whether his poetry is prosiac, since I must confess I have never read any. So what of The Coup his 1978 attempt at an African comedy? It is, I suppose, a wry post-modern companion piece to Waugh's Black Mischief. But not nearly as good - not for this reader anyway. Don't get me wrong it is dauntingly beautiful in its composition but so dense that the comedy struggles to get out from under the taut wrapping of the prose. It plays artfully with point of view but, and here I suspect we have the key, it is at its most engaging when we flashback to the narrator/dictator's American college years. Updike's educated ennui with his own country shines through. A wholly admirable novel but not a page-turner. I doubt that Updike would be even remotely bothered by this middle-brow estimation. My instict upon finishing the book was to reach for Waugh's Unconditional Surrender, one of my late Father's favourite's, my well-thumbed copy of which I keep near at hand. Now that is mastery.