There is a rich tradition of academic satire in twentieth-century fiction.

Novels like Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim (1953) and Don DeLillo's White Noise (1985) are well known for their comic portrayal of academic characters. A combination of academic satire and romantic comedy is also dramatized in Philip Roth's The Professor of Desire (1977). Updike clearly adds to this tradition with the creation of Professor Clayton.

There are also several precedents for the mixture of history and fiction in Memories of the Ford Administration.

Novels like Robert Coover's The Public Burning (1977) and E. L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel (1971) turn historical events into an obsessive and guiltridden fantasy of America's past. Updike goes even further by showing how the professor of history is hopelessly involved with his own need for confession and self-justification.

As far as Updike's comic portrayal of a midlife crisis is concerned, the possible examples in contemporary...