false 11656 3 When we first met him in <i>Rabbit, Run</i> (1960), the book that established John Updike as a major novelist, Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom is playing basketball with some boys in an alley in Pennsylvania during the tail end of the Eisenhower era, reliving for a moment his past as a star high school athlete. Athleticism of a different sort is on display throughout these four magnificent novels&#8212;the athleticism of an imagination possessed of the ability to lay bare, with a seemingly effortless animal grace, the enchantments and disenchantments of life.<br><br>Updike revisited his hero toward the end of each of the following decades in the second half of this American century; and in each of the subsequent novels, as Rabbit, his wife, Janice, his son, Nelson, and the people around them grow, these characters take on the lineaments of our common existence. In prose that is one of the glories of contemporary literature, Updike has chronicled the frustrations and ambiguous triumphs, the longuers, the loves and frenzies, the betrayals and reconciliations of our era. He has given us our representative American story. 14073 book 17 10 1994 Rabbit Angstrom : The Four Novels : Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest (Everyman's Library) total:360|5:197|4:101|3:44|2:10|1:8| 360 1549 739 73 5 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 23 05:16:49 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 20:36:27 -0700 2007
I just finished the series in the airport last week.

Updike writes phenomenal prose. His use of language is amazing.
"He encloses her skull in his hands, caressing the spinelike ridges behind the seashell curve ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Nov 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 06:38:34 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 24 07:14:14 -0800 2008
Backstory:
In 2005 I was staying in Italy with a recovering professor of mine. I think when you are twenty-three and you're tour...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 27 23:25:38 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 27 23:34:24 -0800 2008 Rabbit, Run is about 300 pages and a great read. Sure not much happens if you break down a typical Updike novel, this is especially true with the Rabbit series, but that's not why anyone reads his books. The prose slowly paints a nice p...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 16 11:47:56 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 11:47:56 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Feb 20 03:10:43 -0800 2009 Mon Oct 05 18:54:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 02 19:06:06 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 16 20:27:47 -0800 2009
Harry did a lot of really horrible things, and most of the time I hated his guts, but every so often, there were glimpses of someone who wa...more...]]> 4 0 false true Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 18 11:17:50 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 18 11:35:34 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sun Jun 10 20:00:02 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 10 20:00:02 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 21:07:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 21:09:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 05 21:25:09 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 21:28:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Aug 08 05:31:19 -0700 2009 Sat Dec 15 13:03:35 -0800 2007 Sat Aug 08 05:31:19 -0700 2009 Rabbit Run

The technical style of the book is hard to beat. There is a clear plot, minor characters that come to life, settings that are at once natural and resonant, and a deeper meaning to the story that comes out without long philosophical expositions. In short, this is as good as the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 18 06:46:56 -0800 2009 Sat Apr 18 11:33:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 07 17:03:25 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 17:06:58 -0800 2009 1 0 false false Fri Dec 05 14:48:16 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 05 14:51:05 -0800 2008 5 0 false false Fri Apr 17 14:07:37 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 14:13:27 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1988 Thu Jun 25 15:53:39 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 15:55:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Apr 13 11:37:21 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 11:39:51 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jan 26 04:38:52 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 04:40:31 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Nov 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Oct 26 05:02:16 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 14:09:28 -0800 2009 2

... I cheated. I read books one and four, listened to books two and three. I loved it as much the second time.]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 29 13:52:59 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 14:02:40 -0700 2009