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Product Description
Review
“Unquestionably Updike’s finest novel . . . Funny and sharp and damnably intelligent.”—The Boston Globe
“Dazzlingly reaffirms Updike’s place as master chronicler of the spiritual maladies and very earthly pleasures of the Middle-American male.”—Vogue
“Rich, funny . . . Updike at the very height of his powers.”—New York magazine
Book Description
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award
The hero of John Updike’s Rabbit, Run, ten years after the events of Rabbit Redux, has come to enjoy considerable prosperity as the chief sales representative of Springer Motors, a Toyota agency in Brewer, Pennsylvania. The time is 1979: Skylab is falling, gas lines are lengthening, and double-digit inflation coincides with a deflation of national self-confidence. Nevertheless, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom feels in good shape, ready to enjoy life at last—until his wayward son, Nelson, returns from the West, and the image of an old love pays a visit to the lot. New characters and old populate these scenes from Rabbit’s middle age as he continues to pursue, in his zigzagging fashion, the rainbow of happiness.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
And the future one day comes,
By Alysson Oliveira "Alysson Oliveira" (Sao Paulo-- Brazil) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rabbit Is Rich (Paperback)
Sad is the day when a man realizes that he is getting old --this is the day when he also realizes that what he used to call future is his actual present. This is when some people think that you don't live one day more --but you have one day less. This is sad and depressive, but this is the tone that John Updike, one of the best American writers ever, chooses to conclude the third installment in his Rabbit quartet.Keeping up the same level of the two previous Rabbit novels, "Rabbit is Rich" was deservedly awarded with Pulitzer Prize, American Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Not bad for a novel about man who has a sort of Peter Pan syndrome and he's afraid of growing up --although this is not this clear stated in any novel. In the very beginning the narrative meditates on the fear of death, and from page one on, we can realize that there is no place to go but down. Rabbit, his family, friends and enemies are back more or less ten years after the events depicted in the previous book. Not only is he older, but also he is wiser and bitter. He's living with his mother in law, and running the car lot that his father in law left. His son Nelson is at college, but sooner will be back --and so will problems. In this novel, Nelson has a major role too. He is becoming sort of a Rabbit Jr. --his fears, mistakes, anxieties are more or less the same his father had. Generation after generation, people are still the same --we're the same kind of 'animals' after all. And Harry Rabbit Angstrom can't do much to change his son --that hates him because of Jill's death. Incapable of any kind of communication, the two can only drift apart, hoping that time can heal the pain. Updike keeps the detailed examination of the sexual moral of the middle class. After a close look at the 50's and 60's sexual conduct, the author turns his magnifying glass to couples in the late 70's. This was when marriages were suffering the consequences of the sexual revolution, and an enormous boredom is replacing the joy of the discovery of a new sexuality in the previous decade. These were also the time of high consumerism. Rabbit is obsessed with a magazine called "Consumer Reports". It seems that the whole country is in a time of prosperity and people can spend as much as they want --but it will have consequences in the end. It is not a fluke that Updike writes great prose. His text is full of wit and imagination --but what I like best is how accurate he can portray that society that is falling apart. His sharp dialogues are pitch perfect, and the cynicism is only a plus in the narrative. Like Charlie --Rabbit's coworker and friend, and his wife's ex-lover-- once said: "That was the good old days. These are the bad new days". And Rabbit doesn't seem to have a bright future ahead of him and his family --which, by the way, is a promise to another great novel, called "Rabbit at Rest". As, it turns out the future one day always comes.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
How Much Is Enough?,
By
This review is from: Rabbit Is Rich (Paperback)
When even the hapless Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom of Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux finds himself living the American Dream, circa 1980, in his own typical fashion, that is reactively, due to his father-in-law dying and his wife and mother-in-law giving him the car dealership to run, he finds himself missing something. Is it the 20 year old illegitimate child he suddenly suspects he's fathered? Resolution of issues, both psychological and territorial, with his son Nelson, eyewitness to the weakest moments of Harry's life, himself at a crossroads without many options? The bliss of a new relationship, perhaps with the youngest of country club wives the Angstroms pal around with these days? Or simply more wealth, and a home of their own, out and away from old Bessie and the Springer nest? Unlike the first two Rabbit books, this is a 423 page novel of minor buildups leading up to a less than monumental payoff, possessing a clear lack of important events(which may disappoint some readers). Rabbit is Rich seems to be more about the things we want than the things we get. Even as Harry exceeds his wildest imaginings, it is the constant hunger, longing, and awareness that the grave is hiding around the corner that makes him feel most human. The characters are much more vivid and believable in this book than the first sequel, and as always with Updike, every sentence is a delicacy.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
a wordsmyth but no more,
By muek (Austria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rabbit Is Rich (Hardcover)
I wonder what makes "Rabbit is Rich" so critically acclaimed. Who the hell is interested in an average American car-sales-man in his forties, decaying like a tooth somewhere in the midst of America, the worst place conceivable.True, Updike is an unsurpassed wordsmith, but I am totally indifferent concerning the plot. America has not very much redeeming features anyhow, except its literature, but this book is a all a yawn.
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