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Title: Rabbit, Run by John Updike ISBN: 0-449-91165-9 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.72 (68 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: sad suburban story of sin and indecision
Comment: For people back in 1960, when the American Dream was alive and well and everyone believed in unlimited progress and The Future, young John Updike's novel must have come on like a bombshell. Yet, for those of us who lived through the Sixties and continue to watch the ebbing away of those primary values that once underlaid our country, reading RABBIT, RUN today is small potatoes. Similarly, the sexual 'explicitness' that had everyone talking back at the time of publication, would hardly raise an eyebrow today. Various sexual acts that have become part of US national lore, for better or for worse, were still not given a name in this novel. Rabbit Angstrom, a former highschool basketball star, is stuck in a boring, tawdry marriage and a dead-end job. His lower middle-class parents expect him to follow in their footsteps; his in-laws look down on him as a no-hoper. A few years later, the answer would have been obvious---tune in, turn on, and drop out ! But in those more serious times, a mere five years before the tidal wave of change began, Rabbit's flight can draw no social or political sympathy. There is no Haight-Ashbury in view. He drives into the night, only to return sheepishly. He soon takes up with Ruth, a "loose woman", who, again five years later, could have been seen as a "hip chick doing her own thing". Everyone condemns him, the woman condemns herself. She gets pregnant, but does not tell Rabbit, even when he runs from her to rejoin his wife in the hospital as she gives birth to his second child. Family grudgingly accept him back, but things have not really improved. A do-good minister with a bored, flirtatious wife tries to help Rabbit resolve his inner conflicts, but is too weak to accomplish much. A final tragedy occurs. Rabbit runs off to Ruth yet again. The ending is a little predictable.
In my opinion, Updike hovers always on the edge of greatness. He is forever caught between the desire to write supremely well and to be popular. I love how he catches the feel of a small American town or city in the late '50s, the mores and expectations of the people, their goods and habits. But as a young man, perhaps, Updike loved his own skill rather too much, he loved to sit back and watch himself create these verbose passages, these descriptions of old ladies on porch gliders, of upper class gardens, or of Pennsylvania country gas stations. He revelled in those descriptions that somehow ring a mite "over-literary". His reach for the perfect word sometimes extends too far. I feel, as an older man, that Updike before 30 could see beauty only in very young women, perhaps thanks to Hollywood and the printed media. Each description of an older woman is tinged with disgust, discoloration, and deterioration. That said, Rabbit Angstrom is an unforgettable character. Updike's choice of name is very clever. If you sympathize with him at first, his utterly brainless selfishness and weak indecision, his lack of any backbone whatsoever, tend to make you despair. He is a real antidote to the American dream, to the "log cabin to White House story" that we love to love. At times, this novel annoyed me with its wordiness, but it grips you like a crazy ride on a downward spiral. There is a bit of Rabbit in everyone, but most people face the music, most people form some idea of where to go next.
Rating: 5
Summary: Updike pushes the comfort level.
Comment: I can't believe so many people have panned this book because they don't like the main character. Maybe they see too much of themselves in the book because some of the relationships in their lives are similar to the one Harry Angstrom has with his wife. Marriage is a living thing and it is often not pretty. This book captures life or at least a dark portion of it. If you want a feel good story don't pick it up. If you want a interesting piece of literature that will resonate with you then don't be shy.
Rating: 1
Summary: Updike is a Hack
Comment: Updike? a great American writer? Please. The man couldn't write his way out of a paper bag. He has no diction, his prose is frightful, and he certainly isn't going to convert anyone with Rabbit Run, a pitiful waste of paper, as pretentious as it is creepy. What we have here is another sob story of a man who needs to grow up instead of playing basketball all the time. He's not going to make the N.B.A. So why doesn't he put down the ball? Updike's entire novel centers around this question, trying to make the case that just because Rabbit is no good at basketball doesn't mean he shouldn't play. Please. I suggest Moby Dick, this is pretentious trash.
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Title: Rabbit Redux by John Updike ISBN: 0449911934 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Rabbit is Rich by John Updike ISBN: 0449911829 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike ISBN: 0449911942 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick ISBN: 0142437611 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ISBN: 0684800713 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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