The Hungry Mind Review's 100 Best 20th Century Books
Perhaps, THE great novelist of his generation, Updike is best known
for his brilliant essay on Ted Williams' last game (Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu)
& his series of Rabbit novels. As the first of these opens, Harry
'Rabbit' Angstrom is a 26 year old former High School basketball star,
who finds himself trapped (like a rabbit, get it) in a marriage that is
on the rocks, with a young son and a job he loathes--demonstrating a kitchen
gadget called the MagiPeeler. Coming home from work one day, Harry
stops to play hoops with some neighborhood kids & revels in his ability
to tool on them, until he starts sucking wind. When he gets home
his pregnant wife is drunk & he goes out to get their son from his
Mom's house, but ends up driving to West Virginia instead. Stopping
at a roadside cafe and examining the clientele he wonders, "Is it just
these people I'm outside, or is it all America?"
Rabbit decides to bail out on his family, but wants to get some advice
from his High School Basketball coach, who proceeds to set him up with
a semi-pro whore. Rabbit moves in with her & when he sneaks home
to get some his clothes, he is corralled by the family minister, who asks
him one of the great questions of the Age of Divorce: Do clean clothes
mean so much to you? Whycling to that decency if trampling on others
is so easy?
Harry, of course, is unable to answer this question, but he agrees to
meet with the minister again &
they become golf partners. Meanwhile, Harry takes a job as a
gardener & lives with his trollop. But when his wife gives birth
to a daughter, he moves back home (leaving the now pregnant other woman
behind) & takes a job at his father-in-law's used car lot.
When one night Harry decides that he must have sex (it's a little opaque
but I believe he wished to enjoy anal pleasures) his wife spurns him &
Harry takes off again. He knows he should go home but "Something
held him back...the feeling that somewhere there was something better for
him than listening to babies cry and cheating people in used-car lots..."
Meanwhile, as Harry wanders about, his wife proceeds to get drunk &
while trying to give the baby a bath, accidentally drowns her.
At the funeral, Harry turns to his wife and says, "Don't look at
me, I didn't kill her",then runs away. He goes to his other woman
& tells her she has to have the baby, but hardly meets with a friendly
reception. He goes out for some groceries and just starts running--Run,
Rabbit, Run.
There is one fact that lies at the core of this novel and prevents us
from developing much interest in it's events; Rabbit Angstrom is a prick.
I'd read this series before, but forgotten just how unlikable he is.
Richard Ford must have consciously plagiarized this novel, because I
don't think the subconscious could have achieved such total similarity
between Rabbit and
The Sportswriter.
So my criticism is much the same. Rabbit, like the Sportswriter,
is completely self-centered. His job isn't good enough for him, his
wife isn't good enough for him, his life isn't good enough, and so, he's
perfectly willing to destroy what he has & abandon the obligations
he's taken on, in order to go in search of something better.
But then, even as he destroys the supports that underpin the lives of
those around him, he has the gall to bemoan the absence of God as a support
in his life. There is nothing more annoying than these Iron John-type
men, who, on the one hand, revel in the freedom that they've gained with
the demise of social structures like the nuclear family and the Church,
but, on the other hand, caterwaul about how they've lost their way &
can't find anything to believe in anymore.
So ultimately I come to the same conclusion as I did in my Sportswriter
review; Updike writes so well that we are carried along despite ourselves,
but we're left wanting more out of him--some editorial judgment about Rabbit
as he exists (how does a man justify his concern for clean clothes when
he's destroying his wife & children?) or some development by Rabbit
toward being a better man. Instead, Rabbit ends the book as he began
it, running away from his commitments.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (C)
Comments:
Orrin welcomes reader comments on his reviews.
Add yours here.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Yes, Rabitt is not always likeable. that's what Updike is going for: the death of the American dream. He is selfish, and the books are a bit lurid, but, that is the genius of Updike. A charcter does'nt have to be loved, or even liked for that matter, to be interesting. True the 2nd through 4th books are better than the first. I still give it at least a b plus\ a minus.
- Ed
- Apr-26-2007, 18:45
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What purpose is served by calling a fictional character a prick? The question is whether the character resembles many actual people and where he or she is less than realistic, whether the imagination and heart are stirred.
This is not a review by a competent reader, but a character assassination of an imaginary being. The first step in understanding and evaluating literature is a wide tolerance and compassion for characters and humans that are less than ideal. This reviewer receives a D.
- Robert Clark
- Jul-11-2006, 11:43
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About your Rabbit review: I think you shouldn't read a book like this, or the entire series, looking for some kind of justification. The series, as well as Rabbit, Run, ended in true nature of the existential helplessness that fueled the underlying tone of the books. If anything, we should find pieces of our own selfish natures with which there are no clear formulas. How can clean cloths still make a difference when we can trample over people we think we love? It's simple: some people are assholes, and with Rabbit, we are disturbed to see how we can relate to some of his reactions to life. Maybe we admire him for taking initiative, or maybe we despise him (a feeling that does evolve from being enthralled anyway), but in the end - the book is relatable and that is where we have been awaken to our own condition.
- Matt Mcgregor
- Aug-14-2003, 15:57
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I can't agree. Although Rabbit Run, was very depressing the entire series is wonderful. Yes, Rabbit is an a** but he is a lovable one. Even he is surprised at how deeply affectionate people are towards him. In Rabbit is Rich, he is toally surprised at Thelma Harrison's longterm affection just revealed. He is a selfcentered boy/man led by his member but what man can claim much different. He is an amazing character. In american literature is there any better? Updike is a genius as he spands decades having us see the world and the times of it unfold in the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom and his family, friends and associates. From a high school sports star, to a cheating husband then spurned, to shacking up with an eighteen year old half his age, to a swinging rich man to snowbird, Rabbit is riveting. To really appreciate the series you must read it all. And read it you should.
- Mike Colicchio
- Jan-02-2003, 10:03
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I can't agree. Although Rabbit Run, was very depressing the entire series is wonderful. Yes, Rabbit is an a** but he is a lovable one. Even he is surprised at how deeply affectionate people are towards him. In Rabbit is Rich, he is toally surprised at Thelma Harrison's longterm affection just revealed. He is a selfcentered boy/man led by his member but what man can claim much different. He is an amazing character. In american literature is there any better? Updike is a genius as he spands decades having us see the world and the times of it unfold in the life of Harry "Rannit" Angstrom and his family, friends and associates. From a high school sports star, to a cheating husband then spurned, to shacking up with an eighteen year old half his age, to a swinging rich man to snowbird, Rabbit is riveting. To really appreciate the series you must read it all. And read it you should.
- Mike Colicchio
- Jan-02-2003, 08:51
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Thank you for your review of Rabbit, Run. I, too, was repelled by Harry Angstrom yet carried along by Updike's wonderful writing. But ultimately, I decided that the prose cannot overtake my revulsion for the lead character. I shall run no more, instead go back and re-read Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu, and revel in a true work of American greatness.
- David
- Dec-22-2002, 19:29
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