Rebecca's review
Rabbit Redux by John Updike
So far, this is the harshest book I've read in Updike's Rabbit series. With the characters he's created, it's so hard to say I LIKE them, or relate to them, or understand them, they are all so flawed, so pathetic, so often unredeeming. Yet there is some human connection Updike forces you to make, whether you sympathize with the characters or not. Set in 1969, a controversial time in U.S. history, this book is a challenge in many ways. While scenarios unfold like an over-the-top episode of Jerry Springer, the main character of Rabbit is numb to the violence, destruction, and intense family drama that swirls around him -- is, in fact, caused BY him. Aggressive opinions and unabashedly bold characterizations of a teenage hippie runaway and a pseudo-Black Panther/renegade prophet/jive-talking drug dealer. As in real life, tender moments are often spoiled by gutless base reactions and Freudian psychological hang-ups. Most entertaining really is the socio-political commentary woven into...more
