Rabbit, Run

John Updike's troubling novel Rabbit, Run is of very uneven quality. Fortunately, the farther the reader gets into it, the better it is. Throughout the book, Updike demonstrates that he is a master of descriptive detail, something that his command of language enables him to apply to just about anything that life has to offer in the small, not particularly interesting city, where his story is located.Too often, however, especially in the first half of the book, Updike becomes so intricately involved in finely nuanced descriptions that one loses sight of the context and wholeness of whatever it is that's caught the author's interest. There is a good deal of sex in Rabbit, Run, but Updike's disposition to capture every shadow, reflection, curve, ringlet, twitch, thrust, vocalization, shift in the position of an elbow ... sometimes disassembles it until it's almost unrecognizable and decidedly lacking in eroticism. No, Updike has no obligation to write in a way that his readers find titillating, but there should be a reason for his determination to capture every discrete part of every performance, and sometimes there is none. His lengthy visual deliberation on the scene when Rabbit Angstrom, his protagonist, first makes love to Ruth is so thoroughly dissected that the whole is almost unrecognizable. Yes, it's really clever of him to be able to accomplish this transformation, but what's the point.On the other hand, when Updike brings his remarkable linguistic and descriptive skills to bear with purpose, as on pages 245 to 250, we see vividly, in just a few paragraphs, the oneness of Rabbit's wife with his suckling baby daughter, the uncharacteristically joyous religious fervor prompted by Rabbit's momentary gratitude for his familial good fortune, and the excitement roused by brief glimpses of the partial profile of the Episcopal minister's wife as shielded-and-revealed by the brim of her straw hat. Updike uses words masterfully, sometimes to good purpose and sometimes as if he were engaged in an exercise, complex combinations as ends in themselves, a virtuoso who wants to make sure that the reader knows he's a virtuoso.But perhaps I'm misinterpreting Updike. Rabbit Angstrom is engaged in a never-ending search for meaning, purpose, a foundation that won't wobble, tumbling him into a void of meaninglessness where nothing really counts and any sense of permanence is chimerical. Maybe this explains why Updike sometime overdoes his descriptive detail, deconstructing commonplace activities: both he and Rabbit want to see if there is anything durably consequential to be found. In short, this is the author's search and his protagonist is his instrument. One can think and explore with fictional characters, even with their own needs and limitations, and that may be what Updike is doing. The world he is creating, after all, is one in which even some clergymen are not convinced that there is a God or a hereafter, with some actively rejecting both. Others, however, remain rigidly, even angrily steadfast in what we are told is their faith. Whatever the makeup of the clergymen, however, their congregations are dutifully respectable and publicly obedient. Deconstruction does seem to be in order.Updike enables us to see and feel the uncertainty, uneasiness, and discomfort of his characters, as well as their inability to reliably understand those around them, He does not, however give us much of anything or anyone to like. Ruth the prostitute is honest, forgiving, though not to the point of self-destruction, and she doesn't go out of her way to hurt anyone, nor does she hold grudges over trivial matters. She is the closest thing to a whole, rational, and compassionate person that we find in Rabbit, Run.Ruth's willingness to risk pregnancy and degradation while unmarried and without prospects are things she does for Rabbit, though only in response to his quirks and silly selfishness. Evidently, for a time, she really is afraid of losing him, though she's smart and experienced enough to see him for the lost, self-serving soul that he is. Still, in spite of this lapse in self regard, she remains the only character worth caring about in this small-city menagerie taken from the 1950's.The last thirty or so pages of Rabbit, Run are a linguistic tour de force. Again, however, they lead to nothing but a road that Rabbit has traveled before. Rabbit is free, and for the moment his lack of fetters gives him joy. He has achieved an existential coward's victory, and it suits him quite well. The reader can only ruminate over the damage he will do and the prices he will refuse to pay in the future. As for his sense of emptiness, perhaps he will accept it and turn it to his advantage, construing the cruelty and the harm he inflicts on others as just transient epiphenomena in a world devoid of meaning and purpose, a place where nothing really counts.This is not the sort of book I would seek out. Updike sometimes writes like an established and deserving master, but other times like a marvelously precocious amateur, someone too short on life experience to give his characters substance, someone whose talent lets him stumble unharmed from one literary misadventure to another. He's a lot like his creation, Rabbit Angstrom, except that Angstrom plays with people's lives. Perhaps that's Rabbit's answer to the Babbitry of life in America of the 1950's and to eternal existential emptyness: manifest one's concrete reality as an individual by manipulating others into outcomes they would never choose.

Although this book was published in 1960 and is very much a litany of late 1950s society and mores, it is still astonishingly relevant for today as it examines the ups and downs of one marriage and the effects—both joyful and tragic—that this couple has not only on themselves, but also on those around them. Our actions, even the intimacy of two people, have a domino effect on everyone else in our lives.What are the consequences when we become utterly selfish, seeking only our own pleasure no matter who else is hurt along the way? Herein lies the crux of this brilliant story.Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, former high school basketball star, is 26, married for about three years, and has a 2-year-old son with another baby on the way. His job is boring. His marriage is boring. His life is boring. He feels trapped and caged in. And his wife is really getting on his nerves. Then one day, on a complete impulse he opens the door to that cage of his life and he just leaves. And while Rabbit initially drives away from his Pennsylvania town, he quickly returns, but then does the unthinkable: While still married to his pregnant wife, he lives with another woman—in plain sight of everyone he has ever known. His total joy at finally having it all is only dampened by his occasional feelings of guilt, engendered mostly by the helpful Episcopal priest who counsels him and totally interferes in his life without ever being asked but sends him on a personal quest for spirituality.The genius of author John Updike is that this classic tale of being lost and found and lost again can be read on two levels: Quite simply, there is a good plot that keeps the pages turning, but scratch just a bit, and there is so much more. The juxtaposition of Rabbit's unfettered freedom with what he knows to be morally correct is brilliant. Rabbit is everyman, scandalous as he is. Even though virtually all the characters in the book are deeply flawed and basically unlikeable, I was totally entranced by the novel.Aside: I am in awe of Updike's mastery of description—be it someone's sweaty shirt, a woman swimming a lap in a pool, a man playing golf or the curtains in a window. Every minute detail is mentioned in a way that is not burdensome but rather in a way that extraordinarily magnifies the storyline. One thing that especially fascinated me (old English major that I am) is the imagery of light and dark, as well as the imagery of colors.

The title says it all. Our protagonist is nicknamed “Rabbit” and he spends the novel running both away from and toward domesticity. A formerly gifted high school athlete, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom decides to drive one night, leaving his young family behind, and search for a missing something. Irving tells the story in a single long chapter - with occasional breaks - as Rabbit runs furiously in every direction trying to sate a feeling of loss. Lust is his panacea, and Irving takes great pains to describe the various bodies Rabbit encounters along the way. In the end, the “perceived loss” cannot hold a candle to a truly tragic loss that strikes in the final quarter of the novel. With all his delusions and sins laid bare, Irving leaves the final disposition of Harry Angstrom a loose end (though there are three sequels).Irving drives the story forward with a light touch, bringing to life a broken character in a broken society and allowing the accrued mores of the middle class to create the crisis and action needed.

starts well, good descriptions, promising plot. Exactly up to the end of the kindle free sample. then wow it just gets disgusting and grimy and depressing immedistely. i have probably bought 6000+ books in my life but rarely have i regretted the money. except here. i am at a loss to understand his reputation. maybe it was remarkable and daring half a century ago but today its just a grubby tale of awful people with fancy language. zero stars

"Rabbit, Run" is a raw and brutal character study and an uncompromising look at the society of its time. This is not an easy book to read. The characters are all deeply flawed and at the same time complex and "real". Rabbit Angstrom, the protagonist, is a triumph for the author. He's despicable, and at times seems to lack any redeeming quality but then, when you least expect it, he's kind and even naive and there's just some unpronounceable, indescribable charm to him that makes him truly compelling and even someone you cant help but root for. He's a constant contradiction and a coward and you hate him for all the pain he causes to others around him but deep down its hard not to feel a tiny bit of respect for the man. He speaks to those dark moments we have all lived through where you feel trapped, a prisoner and you want to leave it all and consequences be damned. Rabbit does it. He leaves his pregnant wife and his two year old son and just goes. He just runs away. That is the main plot of the book. He goes looking for that special something which we all dream of, that will make us "feel right" and make our life mean something. He cannot stand being ordinary after having been superb in his high-school basketball career. He wants that glory and even though he has no idea where he will find it, in a way he's brave by going out looking for it. He knows its out there for him.Updike's writing is superb in the description of his characters, their inner views and the world around them. Stylistically he's not an easy author. He has a tendency for over complicating his prose but even if his writing is a bit pretentious at times, its core is so raw it still works well."Rabbit, Run" is divided between a picture of the late 50's american conservative society and a character study of a man who is unable to accept that he's destined for a mundane existence living the american dream. Its a sad tale, full of sorrow and destruction. It will make you feel sick sometimes and even angry and distraught. It will move you and poke at you and challenge you. It will make you feel and that is its greatest triumph.Sublime!

Updike is not for the faint hearted. The books are gritty and paid a fairly bleak picture of the world. But you feel like you really get to know Rabbit in this book, and you can't help but like the character. For those who like this book, you are rewarded to know that there are three more - Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest - a literary tour de force which pretty much gets better the whole way through (okay perhaps the third book is the best in my opinion, but it's open to debate). This is American literature at it's best. Not a huge amount happens yet it's so so good. 10/10.

I gave up reading this about a third of the way through and didn’t finish it. The book doesn’t have chapters so it is difficult to be more precise about where I stopped.

I've wanted to read this for years. And I wasn't disappointed. It's a great novel although pretty bleak. I might wait awhile to read the next one.