Rabbit, Run (1960)/Rabbit, Redux (1971)/Rabbit is Rich (1981)/Rabbit At Rest (1990)/ Rabbit Remembered (2001)
Author: John Updike
Read: July-August 2020
Rating: 2.5/5 stars; 2/5 stars; 3/5 stars; 3.5/5 stars; 4/5 stars

**** Spoilers ****

"Rabbit is Read" (a Haibun Review)

So it begins. We are unceremoniously introduced to Harry Angstrom, nicknamed "Rabbit" due to his childhood resemblance to the animal. Right away, he isn't exactly likable. As the book progresses, this doesn't improve. We become more familiar with, used to, and perhaps accepting of his ways. We are also introduced to the fictional universe where Rabbit lives. He resides in Mt. Judge, a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania. Other real locations are mentioned, such as Lancaster, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
We start Rabbit's story with him impulsively abandoning his pregnant wife Janice and 2-year-old son Nelson. He drives around, thinking of going cross-country, but loses confidence and returns. Instead of going home, he meets his high school basketball coach-cum-mentor Marty and then shacks up with a part-time prostitute named Ruth. He has conversations with a local priest, Eccles, who convinces him to return to his wife when she is in the hospital in labor. Supposedly, this is enough for him to feel guilty and re-establish his wedding vows and move back home. However, in the days to weeks after Janice gives birth to their daughter Rebecca June Armstrong, he nearly cheats on her twice with different women! Tragedy strikes when, after their first argument post-reconciliation, a drunken Janice drowns baby Rebecca. At his daughter's funeral, the turmoil in his head reaches a peak. And, predictably, Rabbit does what is easiest - he runs. His feet carry him to Ruth's place, where he learns of her pregnancy and her determination to keep it. Alas, this first volume of Rabbit's sorry tale ends with him no better off than at the start.

With an unlikable protagonist, a good novel must compensate. And Updike does, mostly. Banal scenarios are made interesting with his eye for detail and description. Insight into the human psyche is evident. But sometimes, this goes too far. Details like the ingredients on a television dinner and descriptions of multiple rooms that don't necessarily contribute to the story can be overwhelming. Long run-on sentences and general negligence of proper punctuation also detract from the reading experience. And when one already has trouble caring about the main character, these issues become even more difficult to overlook.

"Rabbit, Run" up first,
Introducing Updike's world
and writing style.

I began recalling "The Confederacy of Dunces" while reading "Run", and now I'm fully convinced there are many similarities. Both feature peculiar, selfish, and not entirely likable young-ish American men getting into misadventures. The plot isn't straightforward; more domestic and mundane scenarios are made interesting through their experiences. There's a scattered cast of characters, a few main ones and various minor roles. Long harangues and blocks of detailed text can be vexing, especially those of a religious or political nature. Oh, and both are Pulitzer winners. But, to finish the perhaps unfair comparison, "Dunces" was funnier and one could at least feel sorry for Ignatius, while Rabbit struggles to come across as anything but the selfish misanthrope he seems almost proud to be.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with the second book. It's the 60s, and Updike uses a fair amount of the text for social commentary. It can't be denied that Updike has a keen eye for detail and knows how to write. But the complaints from the first book are only aggravated in the second. It's ten years later, and Rabbit is no longer selling the MagiPeeler - he's a senior Linotype operator at the local printing plant. He's back with his wife, but now it's Janice's turn to cheat. The man she chooses is Charlie Stavros, her coworker at her father's car dealership. When she's caught, instead of repenting, she decides to move out. Perhaps in retaliation, Rabbit allows Jill, a pretty young runaway from Connecticut, and Skeeter, an African American drug dealer on the run, to stay with him. Thirteen-year-old Nelson and his thirty-six-year-old father both quickly become attached to Jill - the former out of innocent first love, the latter as a sexual conquest. Conservative neighbors take issue with this, and it results in someone setting fire to the Armstrong house, burning Jill alive before she can escape. Skeeter, sadly, runs out without a second thought to saving her; Nelson and Rabbit are both elsewhere. Unlike the first book, "Redux" ends with Janice and Rabbit back together again, as Charlie was never "the marrying type". The most obtrusive flaws? Excessive soapbox harangues of a political and religious nature, and substantial excerpts on civil rights and racism texts that serve no real purpose other than filling space.

"Rabbit Redux" next,
the characters familiar,
shenanigans new.

Three out of four. Here we find the eponymous man, like the time he's living in - America in 1979 - "running out of gas". Hand in hand with Updike's social commentary on the country's economic and political situation, Rabbit is conspicuously fed up with things. This includes his marriage, his son, his career, his social life, and his sex life. He still clings to his life's highlight - being a high school basketball hero. Rabbit's discriminative, crude, offensive, and racist actions, thoughts, and words have accumulated and continue to do so. It seems to have even gotten worse in this installment, as his (at least ostensible) hatred for his now grown son Nelson is on full display. Not only to his wife and in his actions, but by proclaiming to his face that he's a good for nothing and he wants him gone. Admittedly, part of the problem might be that he's been living with his wife and mother-in-law under the same roof ever since they reconciled. Thankfully, one of the few notable events in "Rich" is the purchase of the couple's first house, after a successful investment in gold and silver. In his middle age of 46, Rabbit's life consists of reading "Consumer Reports", frequenting the country club to keep up appearances, and finding new women to pine after and new ways to cheat on his wife. Although, due to Janice's repeated forgiveness or naiveté, he always returns to her.

Most of the book takes place in Mt. Judge, where Nelson has returned after his short stint at Kent State University in Ohio. He's adamant about working at the Toyota Dealership, which ruffles his father's feathers for months, as Rabbit is strongly against his son running everything at the lot. It's eventually revealed that he knocked up a girl and this was the real reason for his escape. Theresa, who goes by "Pru", arrives by the end of the summer and moves in. Nelson, not the most attentive fiancé, is drunk at a party with her - right behind her in fact - when she falls down some flights of stairs. Luckily, only her arm is injured, and she gives birth to a healthy baby girl soon after. Alas, following in his father's cowardly footsteps, Nelson runs away back to Ohio for a while. Encouraging him to run and even insisting that Nelson is marrying out of obligation, not love, Rabbit finally gives his son some good advice - to not grow up to be like him - something he seems disproportionately worried about. Meanwhile, as all this is going on in his family life, after a girl named Annabelle visits the Toyota dealership and he's convinced she's his daughter, Rabbit makes a few trips to where he last knew Ruth resided. He eventually confronts her regarding Annabelle, but Ruth adamantly denies it. Although she admits that even if it were true, she would never admit it. Likely not really wanting the truth, Rabbit declines her highly suspect offer to let him see the birth certificate. The third installment ends anticlimactically with Nelson still gone and Pru having taken his place in the Angstrom residence.
Updike continues to take his eye for detail perhaps a little too far into banality - long multiple-page chunks of text with no pause for dialogue, almost stream of consciousness style monologues with run-on sentences of characters' thoughts. There were some sections from Nelson's point of view, which was a nice change of pace. Hilariously, at one point Rabbit comments on how he disdains how "coarse" his friends are. This, coming from him, a misogynist or maybe even misanthrope who uses derogatory language all the time and expresses the most discriminative and racist thoughts!
"Rabbit is Rich" third,
his appalling deeds get worse -
but we're stuck with him.

The final (formal) installment of the tetralogy. It's almost 1989. Rabbit is an old man, at least according to him. In reality, he's only in his mid-50s, "semi-retired", and now spends his winters in a Florida condominium he purchased with his wife. To further the cliché, he does indeed play golf every week with some buddies. Rabbit turns 56, making it three decades since we met him in Book #1. Baby Nelson is now grown and married with his own children, and Rabbit and Janice are now grandparents! Sadly, both their parents are no longer around. As we've come to expect, the plot revolves around a series of events and sometimes mundane happenings in Rabbit and his friends and family's lives. There are tangents that often don't benefit the story, and the more than occasional soapbox harangue on politics, religion, the state of affairs in the country, or what it means to be an American. The minutiae often crosses the line into tedium - the complete ingredients list on various packages, the play-by-play of a golf game that takes 20 plus pages, and a likewise play-by-play mentioning each song and accompanying commentary that comes on the radio during several hours of airplay.
A testament to "people never change", Rabbit is still as politically argumentative, still a womanizer, still cheating on his wife, and still as discriminative and racist as ever. Surprise, surprise. Yet, like a childhood friend we can't help but stick with, we somehow read on, interested in this man's life. He does have some redeeming qualities, especially in his role as a grandfather to Judy and Roy. Aging is a central theme, as is coming to terms with morality and keeping his cynical nature in check - at least enough to keep misery at bay (he's evidently not very good at this). In the first third of the book, he has a heart attack and becomes dependent - mostly mentally - on the reassuring nitroglycerin pill he starts keeping in his pocket.
Alas, in this final installment of the series, Rabbit finally does something that crosses the line. No, it doesn't make it better that it was foreshadowed in "Rich". When one predicts such a thing, it's almost a farce. Because, really? Rabbit sleeps with his son's wife? His daughter-in-law. Yes. A question with no answer for dedicated readers: Can a story with an unlikable protagonist still be good? One almost feels guilty for praising a book where our "hero" does something so appallingly offensive. Without this deed, "Rest" is easily the best book in the series. As it is, the decision isn't quite as clear-cut. Updike skillfully provides the advantage of comforting familiarity to loyal readers while making sure not to exclude new readers - one could start reading "Rabbit at Rest" and everything would be perfectly understandable. However, it's this retrospection and various events that harken back to decades ago, and the intimate feelings it evokes in readers - as if we really know Rabbit - that makes this final installment more praiseworthy than it would have been as a standalone. Like a Sympathy Oscar, it might deserve its praise - in a collective sense.
"Rabbit at Rest" last,
fine writing for shameful man,
bittersweet farewell.

Short sequel, short story, novella, long epilogue - whichever label you wish to use, here we have the final final installment! In the fittingly titled tale included in Updike's 2000 collection of thirteen stories, "Remembered" gives us a much awaited update on the supporting characters; life after Rabbit. The year is 1999, with its Y2K paranoia and Clinton scandal drama. Nelson, now separated from Pru, has moved back in with his mother. Janice has ended up with Rabbit's childhood nemesis from his basketball days, Ronnie Harrison. The three of them struggle along, the two men barely friendly. The main plot is the introduction of Annabelle, half-sister to Nelson. What was only strongly implied in previous novels - that Rabbit did indeed father a daughter during his short affair with Ruth in "Run" - is finally confirmed. Likely because it reminds them of Rabbit's infidelities, neither Janice nor Ronnie have any interest in Annabelle and are in fact downright rude to her. Nelson, though, has a soft spot for her, meeting with her for lunch on several occasions, inviting her to Thanksgiving, and defending her in the face of his family's animosity. Without much luck in convincing them, however, he finally moves out. As the book - and sadly the Rabbit series (looks like for real this time!) - comes to an end, things are left on a positive note, with Annabelle being generally accepted into the Angstrom family, a prospective romantic involvement with Fosnacht, a childhood friend of Nelson's, and Nelson and Pru's once defunct marriage looking promising.
Perhaps the ultimate evidence for the theory that it was my disagreement with the character of Rabbit rather than Updike's writing ability that led to my less than stellar assessment of the tetralogy, this was likely my favorite in the series. After being overshadowed by his father in all the other books, Nelson finally comes into his own here and really becomes relatable in his quest to connect with his long lost half-sister and admirable in his counseling work with drug addicts.
A final verdict on the "Rabbit" series ultimately comes down to whether a reader likes Rabbit or not and whether an unlikable protagonist necessarily excludes a great book(s). Love him? You'll love the books. Hate him? Good luck overcoming that. Updike is to be commended on tying up loose ends - something many authors neglect to do, especially in a book series. It feels "special" to remember reading about such and such an event mostly referenced in this final book that initially took place in "Run". As for my final verdict, I quote Rabbit's last words in a Florida hospital bed, with his only son Nelson nervously perching over him, "... all I can tell you is, it isn't so bad."
"Rabbit Remembered",
Angstrom updates post-Harry,
comforting finish.

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While written in an upper-class, New York Times Book Review type of literature, the Rabbit books are essentially fantasy novels. They present a fully realized world and have a tetralogical length. The Rabbit novels fulfill every (hidden) middle-class white ambition. It goes as far as boffing (using Rabbit's vernacular) your daughter-in-law while your son is away at rehab. Or sleeping with a friend's wife and then at the wife's funeral telling the friend that "she was a good lay". Despite all this, we don't hate Harry because he comes across as a happy-go-lucky child who doesn't realize all the pain he has caused. Even at the end of Rabbit at Rest, when he talks of feeling a sharp pain of guilt (over boffing the daughter-in-law), it seems ingenuous and more likely to be just his heart problems. The writing is superb, but that doesn't seem to be enough. If Monet had just painted drab, unsymmetrical, run-down gardens, would anyone still remember him? I see Updike fading in a John Galsworthy kind of way. And don't worry if you haven't heard of him. In the end, even though I think the books had huge flaws and disappointed me more than once, I was still charmed by them. I guess that shows the charisma of Rabbit Angstrom.

Fifteen-hundred-and-sixteen pages later and I truly wish John Updike had written more. This is an amazing achievement of a story and I love every single page of it.

Backstory: In 2005, I was staying in Italy with a recovering professor of mine. At twenty-three, when touring Italy with a girlfriend, one would expect a grand old party. However, I ended up staying at Unsworth's house for a solid week. They were so insistent that we return the rental car and they would arrange to get us to Assissi and Perugia.

Unsworth was 75 then, from northern England and resembled all the tweedish parts of Sean Connery. At night, we watched the BBC news at 8 (he would exclaim, "What is the world coming to that the BBC stops twice in a half hour for advertisements?") and sat up at night drinking wine while Barry recited Homer in Greek (saying, "Untranslatable.") and his wife lamented how Americans don't have great heroes like Achilles.

Barry and his wife both spoke highly of a short story I had written in college. I was surprised that either of them, let alone Aira, had read it at all. He said it reminded him of something. "Updike, John. That American fellow. You might enjoy his Rabbit novels."

Rabbit Run: When I returned to New York, I went to the Strand and purchased the Everyman's Library edition, which included all four of the novels. I read the first volume with joy. It was about a twenty-three-year-old male with misgivings about the world in 1959. It described a cute little American rust-belt town which I would have driven through on my way to school the year before.

Rabbit Redux: A year later, at a loss for something to read, I hauled out the giant volume and started on the next quarter. This meant enduring the ridicule of others at work (I had a steady job then!). Updike wrote this one in 1969 in the shadow of a changing America. One that needed more parking lots and where leaders were assassinated and black people were louder on the bus (what happened to that old streetcar?). In this novel, man walked on the moon and linotypers like Rabbit would soon be out of business.

Rabbit is Rich: But I was not. Last spring when I got back from tour, I was thin, hungry and out of work. I didn't have the money to buy a new novel to read and so I pulled the volume out again. This one took place in an oddly familiar world of 1979. Muslims were terrorists. Gas prices went through the roof and Detroit was in a bad state. People flocked to foreign car dealers, like the one the main character's father-in-law left in his will. Our hero is now the only Toyota Dealership owner in town during the end of the Carter era. He joins a country club and dabbles in wife-swapping. Probably the most fun about reading these novels is watching the town and its people grow old. People who were toddlers in the first book are now trying to be car salesmen. That old, exotic "Chinese" restaurant in town is now something else. The son who was once a prelingual inconvenience has already been a teenager and now he wants to drop out of school and become a car salesman, like his dad and grandpop. This is because he knocked up his girlfriend.

Rabbit at Rest: Almost twice the size of the earlier books, with 500 pages. But what excitement! The year is 1989 and by some wonderful twist of fate, Rabbit's son Nelson Angstrom is now the chief salesmen of the 1989 Toyota Corolla - my first car! Rabbit is semi-retired and his son seems jittery. What is it with him? Hopefully he doesn't have that new disease, that A-I-D-S virus that the gays have. In this story, all the other plot lines also mature in fun ways. Rabbit's nurse in the hospital is the daughter of a girl Rabbit used to date (his daughter??). His son is still married to the girl he knocked up in college and they have another son. That Chinese restaurant has become a healthy place that serves all kinds of salads. Growing Pains is officially the only show on television where every single character is despicable.

As soon as I turned the final page, I missed the characters already. What will happen to the jittery son now that he's admitted he had a problem with blow? Will they lose the Toyota dealership? Luckily, apparently, Updike also wrote a book of short stories called Rabbit Remembered a couple of years later. I guess I'll order that today.

*SPOILERS*

For all of its epic scope, I feel like I never truly got to know Rabbit Angstrom. He was constantly preoccupied with sex. In the sixties, he dabbled in drugs, getting high in his living room and having relations with a teenage runaway. In the fifties, he abandoned his wife, who then got drunk and drowned their newborn daughter. He was blamed, even though he wasn't there. He was never a good father, always resenting his son's small hands and whiny nature. Even his wife was just a "mutt" to him. But what did he really want? He seemed to lack any particular ambitions. He was the kind of guy that life just happened to, rather than someone who made things happen. You might think that over 1,500 pages would reveal more about his personality, but perhaps that's the point. He was like a mirror, reflecting the most average and cliched aspects of white middle-class American males. He was a former high school sports star who married young, had a kid, had a quarter-life crisis (cheating on his wife), ran away, and then crawled back home. At the end of his life, thirty years and over a thousand pages later, it was the same story. He cheated on his wife again (this time with his daughter-in-law, yikes!), ran away, and then, like any typical American male, had a heart attack and died.

The story is framed nicely. We start in 1959 with Rabbit joining a group of young kids in an alley basketball game. His 26-year-old body was long and lean, and he was at ease while making the younger ones a bit uncomfortable. We end with Rabbit, a 56-year-old old fat man in 1989, teaching a black teenager a lesson in a game of one-on-one in a hood a few miles from his Gulf Coast condo. Then he has a heart attack and dies.

It's definitely well-written, but I never really cared enough about any of the characters. Rabbit was too indecisive, Janice was too dynamic to pin down (she changed the most over the years, from a stupid young alcoholic to a sexually adventurous adulterer to a fine, flirty, firm real estate agent with a seemingly limitless and malleable life), his son was too absent and whiny, his parents were only around for a few novels and then died, and nobody else was developed enough to even comment on. But it sure is long.

I read Run Rabbit from the library when I was a high school student. It had a profound impact on me and played a significant role in shaping my perspective back then. The story truly struck a chord within me.

However, when you consider all the characters and events in the book as a whole, the protagonist emerges as an Everyman. He is someone with whom we can all identify, yet we find ourselves wishing that he would make better choices. Despite his flaws, he is a sympathetic Everyman.

He represents a particular time and place in America, carrying the hopes, dreams, and struggles that were characteristic of that era. Through his experiences, we gain a deeper understanding of the society and the people who lived during that time. Run Rabbit is not just a story; it is a reflection of a bygone era and a reminder of the universal human experiences that transcend time and place.

The content of these novels is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

It is filled with intense and often disturbing themes that can make one's heart race and stomach churn.

However, Updike's writing style is truly astounding.

He has a remarkable ability to bring the characters and their stories to life with vivid descriptions and engaging prose.

None of the characters are entirely sympathetic, which adds an interesting layer of complexity to the narrative.

Despite their flaws and shortcomings, their travails were strange and compelling enough to keep me reading all 1,500 pages.

Updike's masterful storytelling skills and unique perspective make these novels a must-read for those who are willing to venture into the darker side of human nature.

It is a literary journey that is both challenging and rewarding, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these four books. What I particularly liked was the way it traversed through the decades from the 60s to the 1990s. It truly provided a vivid sense of the culture of each of those eras. The main character has a preoccupation with sex, which is a significant aspect of these novels. So, if you're concerned about others reading something inappropriate over your shoulder, it might not be the best choice to read these on the subway!

I would highly recommend these books, although it is a substantial commitment to read all four. However, I believe it is worthwhile to follow the character throughout such a large part of his life. There were times when I got a bit bored with the descriptions that sometimes seemed to go on a little too long. But overall, the writing is excellent, just as one would expect from Updike.

Since this is, essentially, four separate novels, I took it upon myself to review them separately. Now that's dedication.

Overall, Updike truly knows how to set a scene. The first novel is set in an era I didn't experience firsthand, yet I felt as if I was right there. I understood it. These novels offer insights into America, revealing what we consider important and how we cope. However, it's a rather depressing picture. Also, even if you despise the characters and have an aversion to the story itself, you can't deny that Updike is an outstanding writer. With that being said...

Rabbit, Run
I loathe Rabbit. He is selfish and irresponsible, and it's painful to think that he believes everything he does throughout this entire novel is "right." Even when attempting to console his wife, he fails miserably, and he can't fathom why she's always angry at him.

Rev. Eccles is the one who saved this story for me. If it were just about Rabbit, I wouldn't have cared in the slightest. Eccles is the only character who truly feels authentic. The reverend who desires to save everything, who has doubts about himself, and who simply wants to be liked. His interactions with our protagonist almost made me feel sympathy for Rabbit as well, because that's what he wanted.

Perhaps there's still hope for the lowest of the low after all.

Rabbit Redux
Holy cow, the politics! I'm aware we're in the 60s and everyone is up in arms about war, revolution, and such, but the political rantings were excessive. Skeeter's section was too long, and I really didn't care about his bantering with Rabbit. Skeeter is out of his mind (he thinks he's the black Jesus), Rabbit is [still] mentally unstable, and some really messed up things occur (namely involving drugs and sex). That's a summary of a significant portion of the book. Save yourself the trouble.

Rabbit hasn't changed at all, despite the fact that his wife has now been the one to leave (which he encouraged), and he's supposedly caring for his adolescent son. I don't want to see what happens to Nelson. I'm afraid he'll end up as messed up as his father.

The treatment of women in this book also annoys me. The idea that "She's an empty shell until she gets laid," as if a woman has no identity without a man. Weren't women viewed as individuals by this point? And what makes every male think they can have any woman they desire? (And do, incidentally; it seems more like Updike fulfilling his fantasies than adding anything to the plot).

Rabbit is Rich
Man, writing reviews without spoiling the previous books is becoming a bit challenging.

As I expected, but wasn't looking forward to, Nelson is as messed up as his father. It's the typical, "I'm not going to be anything like you" attitude, yet he can't see that he most definitely is. Although I pitied Nelson. It's not his fault he has a warped outlook on life. He gets angry whenever his parents talk about moving out of Janice's mother's house because then no one would take care of him. Spoiled little brat.

Obviously, I have to touch upon this as well—my goodness, the sex! I've never read so much sexually explicit and detailed content. But I guess it's good, in a sense, to see a middle-aged couple (who I could swear would be divorced by now) who are still interested in each other, in their own rather indifferent way. But the Caribbean vacation? I can't even discuss it. (One, it would spoil things, and two... I felt dirty just reading it.)

I knew the "rich" in the title would mean more than just money, though money was a significant part of it. Sure, Rabbit has cash. He dresses well, drives a fancy car. And there's a lot of focus on that, the pride of money in the midst of a crappy economy. But I think he eventually learns what it means to be rich in life, not just in the bank. And I really mean "eventually;" I'm talking about the last paragraph or so of the book. Yes, it took that long to get to the plot.

Rabbit at Rest
I'll be honest, I wasn't paying much attention at this point. Once I realized it was the same guy, getting into the same situations, I just couldn't be bothered. I was waiting for it to end. It's no surprise he messed up his kid even further, and the entire family is delusional about one thing or another. And hey, look, another book in which Rabbit sleeps with other women. I can't stand it anymore.

In conclusion, I should have stuck with just the first book. That was clearly the best of the lot. I get the sense, throughout the novels, that Updike was trying to set the story in its respective decade, to present what was happening in the world around Rabbit, but I just didn't care. It was always "here's Rabbit watching the news, and here are two pages about what he saw." I just don't care what's happening on the news. At least in Rabbit Redux, his situation is related to what was going on in America, which (as explained in the last novel) was "everyone did crazy things in the sixties." But beyond that? He could be any guy, at any time. Which I suppose is the point, but he paints a rather pathetic picture of the American white male.

The rating might seem a little high given my, erm, ranting. But really, it was Rabbit, Run that was the saving grace of this review.

Rabbit, Run (read 10/2/09) - 3

This is a story that is both dense and concise. At its best, it is mediocre, yet it is cast in lavishly beautiful prose. As a writer, I cannot help but be in awe of the beauty of Updike's descriptions. However, the story itself isn't all that great. In the beginning, it takes some hard work to get through, but overall, it is a fairly entertaining read.

Rabbit Redux (read 11/19/09) - 2.5

Rabbit Angstrom gradually grows on you. The first hundred or two hundred pages are just average, but once Rabbit allows Jill and Skeeter into his house, things become strangely compelling. For a long time, not much really happens, but for some reason, it's not difficult to keep reading about Rabbit getting high with Skeeter night after night. The climax is a quick read, followed by a tapering ending.

I felt that the prose in this book was not on par with the previous Rabbit book, and the story was more or less as slow and dense as the previous one.

I'm not sure if I'll continue reading the rest of the tetralogy. Frankly, I'm not completely drawn to Rabbit and his world, although I did live in a middle-class suburb when I was in elementary and middle schools.

Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest (7/27-8/27)

Finally! I'm done.

I enjoyed these last two novels more than the previous two, probably because I was specifically looking for gorgeous descriptive prose.

One thing to keep in mind when reading the Rabbit series is that Updike is attempting to paint each decade. This means there are a lot of descriptions and expositions that may seem unnecessary to the story. Once you accept this and relax, allowing his ethereal prose to wash over you, then I think you can enjoy it. In other words, you need to adjust your expectations when approaching these novels. Updike is not so much interested in telling a gripping story as he is in illustrating and responding to each decade he portrays, from the 50s up to the 80s.

Overall, I liked it. Although the protagonist, Rabbit Angstrom, is a rather reprehensible character, to say the least (especially in the end of Rabbit at Rest), and some people might have trouble identifying with him. But remember: it's not just about the main character or the plot. It's about the scenes, the atmosphere, and the other characters surrounding Rabbit that make this a good read. And of course, Updike's prose is a major plus. It's all good stuff.

I really enjoyed the first one particularly.

However, it is truly intriguing to follow the character throughout four novels. Each novel represents four distinct periods of the character's life.

This is quite a remarkable feat for the author. The author was writing about these different stages at different stages of his own life.

It is fascinating to see how the author was able to capture the essence of each period and bring the character to life in such a vivid way.

The four novels offer a unique perspective on the character's growth and development, and it is a pleasure to read and experience.

Overall, I would highly recommend these novels to anyone who enjoys a well-written and engaging story.

Updike, in my opinion, is a writer whose work requires an acquired taste. Although my overall feeling of disgust never prevented me from picking up his book(s) and reading it, I have to admit that at the sentence level, his prose is truly excellent. However, most of the time, he struck me as an exhibitionist and a chauvinist. I detested his protagonist (or perhaps antihero, whichever it may be), although I understand that to some extent, this was his intention. Presenting detailed blow-by-blow accounts of the day's news apparently makes this work a historical artifact. But the aspect that I loathed the most, aside from women throwing themselves at this overweight slob, was probably the descriptions of golf.

Rabbit Run - How on earth can one rate a book whose main character has scarcely any redeeming qualities? He is an epitome of selfishness, making excessive demands, behaving childishly, being mean-spirited, greedy, and completely adrift in his quest to understand the meaning of a good life. I do believe that deep down, he desires success and to be a better man, but the circumstances of his life seem to justify his actions. Nevertheless, Rabbit is truly a despicable human being. On a positive note, Updike's writing is simply amazing, and it is for this remarkable writing that I will persevere. 4 out of 5.

Rabbit Redux - What in the world was this book all about? I read the entire thing, and by the end, nothing had changed. The story seemed to have gone in a complete circle, right back to where it started. I am less impressed with Updike's writing in this installment, although the characters do have more distinct personalities. 2 out of 5.

Rabbit is Rich - Here we see Rabbit as he was in the first book, but this time he is a father and Nelson is running around like a fool. Still, I am intrigued enough by the change in Rabbit's personality and character that time has brought about to finish this book. 3 out of 5.

Rabbit at Rest - This one has the best writing and the best plot. After reading the first three books, all I could think was that I have never wanted a book to end so badly in my life. 2 out of 5.