Rabbit, Run [Large Print] (Hardcover)

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.

Rabbit is a young, married father who is unhappy with his lower middle class life and unexpectedly deserts his wife and son while on an errand. He moves in with the town floozie and plays house while trying to figure out exactly what to do. He is befriended by a priest who tries to set him on the right path during weekly golf rounds. Despite his selfishness and arrogance, Rabbit manages to be immensely likable; somehow i was rooting for this adulterer and liar to succeed in the end. This is mainly due to Updike's skills as a writer. He doesn't paint a pretty picture of his characters or make them bastions of morality. Instead, they are entirely human, which makes them incredibly easy to relate to. I underlined several passages in the book as being remarkably insightful. Updike is able to describe the human condition in three sentences when it would take three paragraphs for even the most skilled writers. At least in this respect, Updike is very similar to my favorite American author, Richard Russo.

Updike peppers his book with humor and tragedy, making "Rabbit, Run" a bit of a roller coaster and always surprising. His cast of characters (especially the minister's wife) are colorful and dynamic. Appropriately, there's no great moral at the end (again: Russo), leaving the way open for the other Rabbit books, which after this great opening salvo, I can't wait to read.

4 stars.

Sure Rabbit is selfish --who isn't? -- but his motivations are his fears, rather than his egotistical feelings. His fear of failing as a father, a son, a husband, actually, as a human being is what makes him move from one point to another; to change things is his life. His unhappy marriage, his dead-end job are just symptoms of a bigger disease, and in this angst that lies the central spine of this splendid novel.

At the beginning of the narrative when Rabbit is thinking of going somewhere --he's not sure where -- far from his family, he ask for directions in a gas station. The attendant, an old man, simply says: "Figure out where you are going before you go there." And, while Rabbit keeps that in mind, he fails to follow this advice. The fact that he goes through the motions in his life --he never seems to do anything with passion -- only proves that, like most youngsters, he is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. This is one of the biggest qualities of this novel, to portray someone's life so full of truth.

Updike writes with his heart and his brain, making a colorful prose and characters so believable that you don't want them to go when the book is over. Every character is believable, the wife, the parents, the in-laws. I think his idea has worked so well, that he expanded that in his more books, creating The Rabbit Tetralogy. "Rabbit, Run" is highly recommended to those who like literary and good books. And now, I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.