The Rumor – John Updike

It’s a game of telephone, this story by John Updike, who I’m getting to know better each time I read him.

The Rumor, which can be found in its entirety here, is something to be in awe of, really, more “bowled over” than “awe” if you want me to be specific.

Frank and Sharon Whittier have purchased a gallery in lower Manhattan during the low period of what most would call the hip 1980′s. I used to hang out at those galleries at that time as a kid, and it never struck me as more than group of artists talking about making art, like a club, either you were in or outside in line. The wine was crap, and no one had to go outside to smoke.

Frank has become the victim of a bad rumor that he is gay. I don’t see how that could be a problem, well, maybe for Sharon, his wife, but she thinks it’s a joke. This story doesn’t really revolve around the rumor, or treat it like it’s truly important. What happens to and around Frank because of this rumor is what makes the story so special. Updike shows Frank alone in his living room, under a lamp reading, when Sharon announces this tid-bit. Frank goes into self description, neat and tidy, skipping lunch if he’s gained a pound, the trips to the morning scale religious. His attire is flattering and firm, he plays tennis with a man who has a scar on his chin from some manly accident. Frank spends the rest of this story trying to prove he’s not gay, and hoping that every tick and tock around him somehow isn’t trying to question his manhood.

Updike moves around Frank and Sharon like a practiced bullshitter. The couple argues over this rumor as if it might make Frank less of a man, or Sharon somehow unlady like, if it were true. Updike describes 80′s interior design, as it happens people who lived it the 1980′s art world certainly lived the times, but as it stands, most people don’t decorate their homes with whatever the hot must-have designs of the times dictate. Usually people decorate their homes like a personal time capsule.

This rumor gets Frank thinking about his own parents, if he liked Mom more than Dad, and if that decision makes him gay? He screws Sharon with more gusto now that his sexuality has been brought into question. Updike makes it seem like only about one hundred people live in Manhattan, and all of them know Frank and think he’s gay. It’s this narrow world of Updike’s that makes you believe only a few people live in this city he’s writing about. It seems even the doorman who Frank already thinks is gay, knows about the rumor. There isn’t anything stopping you from reading and enjoying this little masterpiece.

-JR

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