Baker writes amusingly and insightfully about his obsession with John Updike, telling us in the process a great deal about himself. Updike himself, in a review, calls Baker`s book a close and self-pitiless examination of his relationship with a mental figment derived from a fractional perusal and a few personal glimpses of the author John Updike, and comments, [O]ut of the books of others we sift a book of our own, wherein we read the lessons we want to hear.