Rabbit is Rich
by John Updike
published
August 12th 1982
(first published 1997)
by Fawcett
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binding
Mass Market Paperback, 448 pages
literary awards
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1982); National Book Critics Circle Award (1981); National Book Award for Fiction (1982)
isbn
0449245489
(isbn13: 9780449245484)
description
Winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Ten years after RABBIT REDUX, Harry Angstrom has come to enjoy prosperity as the Chief Sales Repres...more
Ten years after RABBIT REDUX, Harry Angstrom has come to enjoy prosperity as the Chief Sales Repres...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1289)
Read in August, 2008
Though I like to think of myself as a pretty well-rounded hombre, there are exactly four subjects about which I have remained intentionally and unappologetically ignorant. They are:
1. Basketball
2. Money
3. Pussy
4. Cars.
John Updike's RABBIT IS RICH concerns itself primarily with the above listed four topics.
And.
I.
Loved it!
Let's jump right in, shall we? It's just honest, and enrapturing, and raw like a scab you look forward to picking when no one else is watching. I only...more
1. Basketball
2. Money
3. Pussy
4. Cars.
John Updike's RABBIT IS RICH concerns itself primarily with the above listed four topics.
And.
I.
Loved it!
Let's jump right in, shall we? It's just honest, and enrapturing, and raw like a scab you look forward to picking when no one else is watching. I only...more
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3 comments
recommends it for:
people who like good, round characters
i love updike---i started reading the rabbit books and then got so fully into rabbit that i went through the series pretty quickly.
i liked updike's first in the series, "rabbit run," but it took me a while to really love him as much as i did by the time i got to "rabbit is rich". i love the roundness of his stories and his patience in letting his characters develop slowly. updike pays attention to the details of everyday life without making them of monumental importance....more
i liked updike's first in the series, "rabbit run," but it took me a while to really love him as much as i did by the time i got to "rabbit is rich". i love the roundness of his stories and his patience in letting his characters develop slowly. updike pays attention to the details of everyday life without making them of monumental importance....more
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Read in June, 2008
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Read in December, 2007
A much mellower book in Updike's Rabbit "chronicles," documenting middle-age-dom for the main character, a role that, for me, evokes even more sympathy than in the previous two books. Rabbit is still immensely selfish, but somehow more endearing in his childish bids for attention, his scathing criticism of his son, his lust for women other than his wife, his obsessive search for a mystery daughter, his burning desire to finally establish himself independent and on his own terms -- all...more
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Boring, lame, and way too long. Couldn’t believe how uninteresting this one was compared to the previous two books in the series. However, I’m not sure I can fault Updike for this. He’s still a great writer in this book. He’s writing these Rabbit books as he and his characters are getting older and the socio-politico-economic realities of America are changing too. Now he’s stuck with an insufferable (to use Jenne’s favorite word) character. Harry is just a domesticated, middle-aged, ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
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Read in September, 2008
This is a book of moments. It's not nearly as annoying as Rabbit Redux, and not as plot-driven as Rabbit Run. Like its main character, the book is paused, observant, placid and fat. I kept waiting for something to happen, but didn't particularly mind the wait. And I'm starting to love watching this character develop over the decades, evolve from a clueless sexist narcissist to a self-centered blob who begins to have inklings of empathy. Some incredibly well-drawn scenes here, including ...more
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Read in December, 2007
I haven't read much other Updike, but the Rabbit books are interesting in embedding the characters' lives in the history of the period - in this case, late 1970s eastern Pennsylvania. Gas crisis, hostages in Iran, loss of American jobs, inflation, etc. He also pays close attention to the world around his characters. The old downtown of the small city of Brewer has lost its traditional businesses, and the decline of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings has allowed for head s...more
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Definitely the most depressing of the series. Rabbit has become a fat, middle-aged, totally American man. I had trouble taking any positive message from this novel, although a better reader would probably pick up on something I didn't. I took this book to be an illustration of the frailty of the boundaries to our behavior. What appears to be morality at work in us, keeping us in line, is often just lack of opportunity or a complacence that prevents us from considering any of those paths in l...more
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Read in October, 2007
"But as with dying there is a moment that must be pushed through, a slice of time more transparent than plate glass; it is in front of him and he takes the step, drawing heart from that loving void Thelma had confided to him."
My belated reckoning with Updike. I've never read anything like this. So real, so ugly and warty and only once in a very great while transcendent.
A teeny beginner's map of modernism starts to form... this reminds me of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the way we're ...more
My belated reckoning with Updike. I've never read anything like this. So real, so ugly and warty and only once in a very great while transcendent.
A teeny beginner's map of modernism starts to form... this reminds me of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the way we're ...more
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Terribly disappointing--after reading a little of his poetry and short stories (not to mention the reviews of this particular novel), I expected something sublte and uplifting--subtle it is, to an extent I have rarely, if ever, seen before in a novel, but not uplifting. I have never seen (except maybe in Warren's *A Place to Come To*) a more demoralizing picture of the male psychology. Perhaps it would be better if I had read the two prior Rabbit books, but even so--why would anyone want to re...more
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Read in December, 2007
Perhaps my favorite book in the series to date, no doubt because it comes at a time when Rabbit (and I'm sure Updike himself) is a more reflective than at other points in his life. He is more settled and older, which leads to moments of clarity and thought about his life, the world, and those family/friends that are a part of his circle with which I connected more than at other points in the series. I remain very impressed by Updike's ability to further dig into these same characters and continu...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Ben by:
Your mom
This is the third in the four part series. I've never followed a character through multiple books before. I mean, adult books. I followed Ramona and Henry Huggins, but that's different.
Rabbit is the character and he's not a very likable guy, but John Updike writes very nicely, so overall I enjoyed this thing. I need to take a break from Rabbit before I move on to the fourth book. He's rich, almost accidentally, he doesn't much like his wife or his kid, and he sells cars. Yeah.
Rabbit is the character and he's not a very likable guy, but John Updike writes very nicely, so overall I enjoyed this thing. I need to take a break from Rabbit before I move on to the fourth book. He's rich, almost accidentally, he doesn't much like his wife or his kid, and he sells cars. Yeah.
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Read in July, 2008
Rabbit is nouveau riche, and fat. He starts jogging, but it remains to be seen if he will ever lose that belly. In a way, I think he shouldn't just because it fits his character so well. I am not sure if I have ever felt that I know a literary character as intimately as I know Harry Angstrom. I may never be able to look at middle aged white men the same way again. And of course the context is immaculate. Updike did his research, and before google even.
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This book disgusted me. It seemed to be purely sensationalist and driven by the author's decision to shock the average reading public as much as possible. The saving grace of the novel was Nelson's story. The rest of the book seemed to based on Harry's relentless sexual urges and his inability to control them. All I have to say is watch out for the scrambled eggs. And the scene where Harry realizes that something cannot aim.
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Read in September, 2007
I gave up on this book. I'm just not a fan of Irving (edit: meant to say Updike; see how much I cared about this book!). He rambles on a bit too much, and being this was the third book in a series, I felt I was missing quite a bit. It's for the RF book discussion so it prompted me to read for longer than I had wanted to, but in the end, I couldn't do it. Rabbit was so crass and yuck. Bad selection for the 80s discussion book.
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Read in April, 2007
Martin Amis says that Rabbit is Rich is the first book in which Updike's obsession with Joyce really pays off, the first time Updike stops annotating Ulysses and starts elaborating it, extending its technical innovations into more of the 20th century. I couldn't agree more. Updike's description of Rabbit's thoughts meshes perfectly and poetically with his quotation of those thoughts. This is a spooky book.
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Read in June, 2007
The brilliance of Updike is that he can write about the life of this lousy car salesman and make it captivating. Rabbit is a guy who I would likely hate if I ever met him but I can help loving him when I see him with Updike's gaze. The writing is just incredibly good.
I loved this book, the third in the series of four Rabbit books, but I still think the first one was the best so far.
I loved this book, the third in the series of four Rabbit books, but I still think the first one was the best so far.
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Read in December, 2007
A step up from Rabbit Redux, I still get the feeling that some of the characters meant to encapsulate the feeling of the decade just aren't ringing true. I still hate Rabbit, but want to hear what he's up to even when it includes such terms as "cheesy smegma." If you'd like to know the meaning of this term, you'll have to read it yourself because I'm loathe to relive it.
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
people struggling through "Redux"
Everyone was right, this series does pick up steam at the end. Updike redeemed himself after the debacle that was "Rabbit, Redux." The writing's lyrical as always and Rabbit's matured to an interesting point in his life. And the obnoxious characters aren't given a lot of face time (I can handle them in description, but not when they're allowed their own dialogue).
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