Rabbit, Run by John Updike | BOOK REVIEW

[@GomezAddams422]

It's good to hear from somebody who actually understood this book for a change. A lot of readers these days can't get past the superficial idea that a book is only good if you like the main character. If that is the only metric people have for judging the quality and content of a novel then they are sadly missing out on what good writing is all about. Human beings are mixtures of both good and bad and Updike writes about his characters with nuance and depth of understanding. This might take you outside your comfort zone and that is what it is meant to do. If people hate Harry Angstrom it is because Updike succeeded in what he set out to accomplish. What I really liked in Rabbit Run, though, is how Angstrom turns his life around and gets a chance to redeem himself at the end. You really want him to do the right thing but then...well that ending really hurts.

[@levitybooks3952]

Exactly! Very well said. I'll be happy to see how the rest of Rabbit Angstrom progresses and ideally want to read it while I'm young enough to learn from it and see it all play out before I'm at age Harry was at for the start of the story.

[@GomezAddams422]

@@levitybooks3952 Rabbit Redux is a bit more shocking & transgressive but with very well-developed characters & lots of social commentary. The plot is a little far fetched though. I haven't read the other Rabbit books yet. Good luck with that reading.

[@levitybooks3952]

Oh man I spot a massive typo but then I wonder how many of you are acually going to spot it... think I'll just leave it for now!

[@TimLee356]

i really enjoyed the father and his wife chapters. it was like reading multiple books in one.

[@GuiltyFeat]

I can’t wait for you to read the rest of the Rabbit books and see if you revise your opinion of what Updike really means with this character. Rabbit Redux is fairly impenetrable but from Rabbit is Rich on, you may find the author starting to admire Harry Angstrom and make you first complicit and then increasingly uncomfortable. Cheers.

[@levitybooks3952]

I imagine you're right. Updike's afterword to Rabbit, Run does paint him as trying to make Rabbit a bad example of a family man, and he does state in the afterword he intended Rabbit, Run as a standalone. People kept asking him what happened to Rabbit's future, and in a way I feel it'd make sense to me that he'd try make Rabbit even more unlikeable. As if to spite their curiosity to having not learned the lesson, or to show that Rabbit could be even more like himself. I got the suspicion from seeing how many books there are in the series that Updike will try and make us like Rabbit as he gets worser and older. That said, I don't mind the challenge and see it as masterful that an author could try something that could so easily fail. I will get to them soon, I don't doubt I will look back on my own review confused!

[@iluvdingbats]

I began reading the Rabbit books earlier this year and like you struggled to get through the first 50 pages or so of Rabbit Run, but stuck with it and finished it. I took a break and read another book before starting Rabbit Redux and then I was off and running. I found taking a short break between these books was a good idea. I just finished Rabbit at Rest and will probably wait until after the holidays are over to read the final Rabbit novella. Ten to twenty pages a day was my pace as well, and I also agree that this is probably not a book women will love, as I inherited it from my mother and she hated it , and didn't finish it! I saw a lot of myself in Rabbit, which I wasn't expecting , but maybe it's good to be reminded of your inner asshole tendencies and failures every once in a while. A very agreeable review.

[@levitybooks3952]

Haha, of all the books one could receive from one's mother! Yes I think I will check in with the next one early next year, and take a break between them, it does seem like Rabbit gets worse as the books go on, which is somehow compelling me to continue the series? Definitely agree that this is a book/series that men might read just to remind us how terrible men often don't realize they are terrible and that this is really not a good way to live!

[@HeyYallListenUp]

I've added this to my TBR based on your review. I'm not sure how I'll react to it, but it looks like it's worth a try.

[@levitybooks3952]

I think you will loathe this character, he is such an ass! You might still like the story though, which is the strange thing about the book.

[@meyersmegafictionalmusings7692]

Liam. Tremendous video. I’ve been unsure about trying this. I will now. Thank you good Sir. Have you tried Kundera yet? 👊

[@levitybooks3952]

Not yet though I did buy The Unbearable Lightness of Being as a gift for someone. I hope it was good who knows what I made them read! hah yeah I'll get to it soon, I'm getting through a big series of 50 mini books (short stories, Penguin Modern boxset) and then have to try finish Dostoyevsky's 700 pager Demons for a competition this December. Franzen's new 500+ page book's also preordered for October I think? My reading schedule is overlapping I don't think I have enough time who knows how I will film anything for the rest of this year lol

[@Angela-kc5ui]

Updike was an amazing writer. Most people in real life aren’t that likeable

[@user-uberjabbur]

the language hooked me in the start

[@justinphilipnash]

That's a cool cover, a lot better than the one I got from Ballantine Books. They published "Rabbit, Run" and "Rabbit Redux" together in a volume. And I swear it's the worst packaging ever. Part of the reason I've owned it so long and never read it.

[@robinborchert]

Great review, top of my list now

[@levitybooks3952]

Yeah, I've been meaning to tell you that you should! I think I might read this series, and then immediately followed by Bukowski's. I think as chronologies they might parallel one another in some ways.

[@justinphilipnash]

5:22 AHEM SPOILER MUCH? sheesh.