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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
4.0étoiles sur 5
sad suburban story of sin and indecision, Fév 1 2004
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.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
One of the best characters in 'recent' fiction, Mai 19 2004
This book was not an easy one to get into. It definitely starts slow, with descriptions and monologues overrunning the plot for a time. But it doesn't take too long for the reader to fall in love with Rabbit. 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.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Scenes from a marriage, Avril 29 2004
Not only until I was near the end of "Rabbit, Run" did I notice that this novel has many similarities with Ingmar Bergman's movie "Scenes From a Marriage". Both talk about the cold feet that husband and wives have after a period of being married. This is not the only thing they share in common, they are both brilliant. Using a polished and beautiful prose, Updike wrote a novel that grabs you by your rabbit ears and never let you go. You don't have to be a young male American to feel related to Rabbit's life. I believe that most people go through his very same issues sooner or later in one's life.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.
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