Rabbit Is Rich

Rabbit Is Rich

book data

958 ratings, 3.87 average rating, 64 reviews (more data...)

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published

1997 by Penguin Books Ltd

binding

Paperback, 480 pages

literary awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1982); National Book Critics Circle Award (1981); National Book Award for Fiction (1982)

isbn

0140249435 (isbn13: 9780140249439)

description

The hero of John Updike's Rabbit, Run (1960), ten years after the hectic events described in Rabbit Redux (1971), has come to enjoy considerable prosp...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1320)

All ratings | 5 stars (276) | 4 stars (369) | 3 stars (233) | 2 stars (63) | 1 star (14) | avg 3.87

all | this edition

Philip

Philip rated it:

08/01/08

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

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3 comments

Ashley

Ashley rated it:

06/29/07

bookshelves: mybasicbookshelf

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

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Steven

Steven rated it:

11/10/08

bookshelves: 1001, pulitzer, suburban-angst, updike

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

It is 1979 in Brewer, Pennsylvania and in some ways things are looking up for Rabbit Angstrom. In other ways, though, he is still the same ol’ Rabbit, just much more distant from his glory day as a high school basketball star. In this novel, Rabbit is middle-aged and comfortable, at least financially operating his late father-in-law’s Toyota dealership and dabbling in gold and silver speculation. He has also mellowed a bit and is not the angry man that we saw in both “Rabbit, Run” and...more It is 1979 in Brewer, Pennsylvania and in some ways things are looking up for Rabbit Angstrom. In other ways, though, he is still the same ol’ Rabbit, just much more distant from his glory day as a high school basketball star. In this novel, Rabbit is middle-aged and comfortable, at least financially operating his late father-in-law’s Toyota dealership and dabbling in gold and silver speculation. He has also mellowed a bit and is not the angry man that we saw in both “Rabbit, Run” and “Rabbit Redux.” Heck, he even spends most of his days at the country club with various friends, trying to perfect his golf game and drinking gin.

On the other hand, Rabbit is still quite discontented. His son Nelson is dropping out of college and appears to have impregnated an administrative support person at Kent State and will soon have to marry her. He and his son argue about many of the same things that a son and a middle-aged father might argue about, God, commitment, and Nelson’s future at the Toyota dealership. Janice is in many ways his rock, but she is still a bit flawed and a she likes to take more than the occasional drink a little more often than she should. Rabbit also has the lingering suspicion that father a child with his one-time lover Ruth Leonard and that she may have dropped into the Toyota dealership looking for a deal on a new vehicle to beat back the ever expanding gas prices. Rabbit also is discontented because of his libido. At approximately forty-six, he wonders whether he will get to enjoy the amount and variety of women he would like to, especially his friend’s young wife, the alluring and shapely Cindy. Some of his needs are satiated - sexually he and his friends have a nice swinger weekend on a Caribbean holiday (although he doesn’t get the woman of his choice) and he and his wife move in to a bigger house in a nicer neighborhood, but things are still somewhat incomplete. At one point he confronts his old lover Ruth Leonard, and she sums up Rabbit nicely as all “me, me and gimme, gimme” - hard to argue with that characterization.

I have written before about the depth of the characters that Updike has created in this series and while that continues in this volume, what struck me the most in “Rabbit is Rich” is the manner in which Brewer, Pennsylvania and the United States in general in 1979 is also a character. I read this book in June of 2008 and write this review in November of 2008 (where at least temporarily hope has returned), but I recognize that feeling of what has been called malaise. The Middle East is a mess, the Iranians hold us hostage and might have to be confronted, nothing is good on the television, on the radio, or at the movies, the President is not very popular, gold and silver prices are through the roof, we worry about inflation, the economy is in the toilet, and gas prices are way too high and we want a way out. Sound familiar? This is roughly June 1979, but it could also be June 2008. A general feeling that America has lost its way prevails throughout “Rabbit is Rich” and various characters worry that our best days are behind us. I am too young to remember 1979, but it seems like Updike captures the spirit of the time tremendously well.

This again is just a tremendous book about a very flawed man, during a very unique time, struggling with all of those very real, very everyman issues. The deliberate pace of the novel makes you feel like you are really sipping a glass of lemonade out on the porch, just a tremendous continuation of a tremendous series.
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Rebecca

Rebecca rated it:

12/27/07

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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Jafar

Jafar rated it:

10/17/07

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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Devin

Devin rated it:

11/25/08

Read in November, 2008

This was the third in a series of four books about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. I still say that the first, "Rabbit Run" was the best, but each on has it's gems. This was an extremely beautiful and usually vulgar look at middle age. John Updike has an amazing ability to take a seemingly normal life or situation and find incredible beauty in it. His writing style is so spot-on and moving that I usually think he's my favorite author simply because book after book he amazes me w...more

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August

August rated it:

02/26/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Laura

Laura rated it:

09/11/08

bookshelves: pulitzer-prize-project

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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1 comment

Timothy

Timothy rated it:

(review of isbn 0449911829)

02/01/08

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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Meredith

Meredith rated it:

08/28/07

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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Jacob

Jacob rated it:

(review of isbn 0394520874)

10/14/07

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

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Caleb

Caleb rated it:

02/12/08

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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Adam

Adam rated it:

01/06/08

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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Ben

Ben rated it:

03/15/08

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.

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Chelsea

Chelsea rated it:

07/07/08

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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Joseph

Joseph rated it:

04/19/08

bookshelves: fiction

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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Amy

Amy rated it:

09/05/07

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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1 comment

Eric

Eric rated it:

(review of isbn 0449911829)

04/15/07

bookshelves: favorites

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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Michael

Michael rated it:

07/11/07

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.

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Mairi

Mairi rated it:

05/05/08

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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