The Resume

(March 18, 1932-January 27, 2009)
Wrote ‘The Carpentered Hen (1958),’ ‘The Same Door (1959),’ ‘Rabbit, Run (1960),’
‘The Centaur (1963),’ ‘Couples (1968),’ ‘Bech: A Book (1970),’ ‘Rabbit Redux (1971)’ ‘Marry Me (1976),’ ‘The Coup (1978),’ ‘Rabbit is Rich (1981),’ ‘The Witches of Eastwick (1982),’ ‘Roger’s Version (1986),’ ‘Rabbit at Rest (1990),' ‘Brazil (1994),’ ‘In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996),’ ‘Gertrude and Claudius (2000)’ and ‘Villages (2004)’

Why he might be annoying:

Most of his characters are adulterers
After Updike panned one of his novels, Tom Wolfe described him as 'one of my Three Stooges' (the other stooges were Norman Mailer and John Irving).
Much of his writing focused heavily on the details of everyday life, leading some critics to fault him for being 'apolitical.'
His refusal to protest the Vietnam war angered many of his more left-leaning peers.
Gore Vidal called him a 'born reactionary.'
He never won the Nobel prize, despite having been nominated several years in a row.

Why he might not be annoying:

His intricate prose style has been compared to that of Vladimir Nabokov.
Joyce Carol Oates has praised him for being able to capture the 'incandescent allure' of average men and women.
His recurring character Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom is considered by many to be one of the great Everyman characters of modern literature.
His early novels such as ‘Rabbit, Run’ and ‘Couples’ broke many sexual taboos of their time.
Although critical of Tom Wolfe, he has generously promoted the works of many other writers such as Erica Jong.
He won the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
As a child, he stammered and had psoriasis.
He won a full scholarship to Harvard University and graduated summa cum laude.
He was president of the Harvard Lampoon.
He was on the cover of Time magazine twice.
His novel 'The Witches of Eastwick' was made into a successful film starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Credit: Georgina

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Ant Eaters/Pinocchios [Big Noses]
• Beast's 50 Most Loathsome People in America [2008] (Ranked: 38)
• Daily Beast's 11 Greatest Literary Feuds [2010] (Ranked: 3)
• Daily Beast's 11 Greatest Literary Feuds [2010] (Ranked: 6)
• Entertainment Weekly's 100 Best Books [1983-2008] (Ranked: 18)
• Georgina/Devil Doll's Profiles [Series 1]
• Guest Voices on the Simpsons
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• I am a New Englander
• I am Religiously Ambiguous
• I Attended Harvard
• I Died in 2009 (Ranked: 76)
• I Have a Famed Alter Ego
• I Have Asthma
• I Have Lung Cancer
• I Have Psoriasis
• I Have Skin Cancer [Melanoma]
• I Stutter/Stammer
• I Was a Member of 4-H
• I Write Bildungsroman
• Last Names that Rhyme with Dirty Words
• Look at Me, Hmmm, I'm Thinking
• My Voting was Temporarily Suspended on Am I Annoying Due to Vote Abuse
• NPR's 100 Best Literary Characters of the 20th Century [Authors - 2002] (Ranked: 5)
• People with John or Mary in their Names
• Profiles 17251-17500 (Ranked: 17340)
• Satirized on the Simpsons
• Silver Foxes [Gray and Don't Care]
• Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels [Authors]
• Up and Down Names

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 28 Votes: 53.57% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying
In 2011, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
In 2010, Out of 34 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
In 2009, Out of 113 Votes: 23.01% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 46 Votes: 60.87% Annoying
In 2007, Out of 89 Votes: 56.18% Annoying
In 2006, Out of 179 Votes: 56.42% Annoying