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Rabbit, Run

(Rabbit Angstrom #1)

John Updike

3.58 · Rating details · 47,800 ratings · 3,001 reviews

Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his—or any other—generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification an ...more

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Paperback, 325 pages

Published 1996 by Random House (first published 1960)

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3.58 ·

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· 47,800 ratings · 3,001 reviews

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Jul 12, 2009 Kemper rated it really liked it

Shelves: 100, plain-old-fiction, famous-books

God, do I hate Rabbit Angstrom! How much do I hate him? If I was in a room with Hannibal Lector, the Judge from Blood Meridian, the Joker from Batman, and Rabbit Angstrom, and someone handed me a gun with only 3 bullets, I'd shoot Rabbit three times.

This is the first book by Updike I've read, and his reputation as a writer was well-earned. I'd had a vague idea that this story was about a former hot shot basketball player struggling to adjust to a regular life. I was completely unprepared for th ...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Shovelmonkey1 rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: anyone who wants to see teenage angst plus ten years

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: 1001 books list but not Kemper

Shelves: 1001-books, bookcrossing-books, read-in-2011, so-right-but-so-wrong

I'm sorry I think I might have to pause before the start of this review and scream discretely into a pillow:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Phew, that's better, very cathartic. This is yet another book from the 1001 books list which has made me question whether or not the people who write the list actually like people who read books or if they are really secretly intent on torturing us all for their own amusement?

The review w I'm sorry I think I might have to pause before the start of this review and scream discretely into a pillow:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Phew, that's better, very cathartic. This is yet another book from the 1001 books list which has made me question whether or not the people who write the list actually like people who read books or if they are really secretly intent on torturing us all for their own amusement?

The review will now proceed in the style of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom...

Hello everyone, I'm Harry Angstrom, but you can call me "Rabbit". The name is totally applicable in two ways - in high school basket ball games (I was a sporting ace don'tcha know?) a rabbit is a runner who sets the pace, and since leaving high school I appear to be breeding in a way which is prolific and almost rabbit like too. Some might say I also have a tendency to bounce from thing to thing without really thinking about it. No twitchy nose or whiskers though.

So I had this girl since high school, Janice Springer, and I knocked her up and well, damn it, I'm a fan of the idea of domesticity so I made an honest woman of her and her old man hooked us up with an OK place to live and all and no one was too suspect when little Nelson was born 7 months after the wedding. After all, I'm Rabbit, I'm a breeder... that's what we do!

But y'know how it is. Maybe I'm just not ready to be tied down. Janice drinks, man oh man she drinks and she can be a misery. Nowadays she's so busy looking after the kid she's not interested in me (ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME), not like she should be. I mean, I'm great... a regular swell, the cats pyjamas sewn up around the bees knees. I'm a catch and any woman would be lucky to have me.

So one day I decided that rather than go home to my pregnant wife and two year old kid ,I could pretend that I was still the Rabbit of old, and set out to remove myself a suitable distance from adult responsibility. Turns out that a suitable distance involves moving about ten blocks away in the same town and setting up home with a retired hooker with chunky ankles, while reacquainting myself with a load of people who thought I was great ten years ago. When alls said and done its a nice little ego boost! Don't get me wrong, I think I love her. I mean I am pretty sure I do and she lets me talk about myself a whole lot. Plenty in fact and really that's what it boils down to - self indulgence on a grand scale. I'm a bit uncertain about my direction in life, possibly because of an immature, shallow perspective which doesn't allow me to appreciate other peoples outlooks - maybe I'm a Sociopath? I have no empathy. I like to please myself. End of.

Obviously poor old Janice went and had the baby and man, did it cut me up to think that I might miss out on a whole extra helping of double domesticity so off I went back to Janice without a thought for chunky ankles and my newest domestic set up. After one short night I realised that when the going gets tough then rabbit gets going and promptly bailed again, this time with disastrous consequences. Still I manned up and came home to face what was coming to me, but really I didn't enjoy that much and now I've strapped on my running shoes and am sprinting off into the sunset again as fast as my lucky rabbits feet can carry me. You can catch me in the sequels Rabbit Redux and Rabbit is Rich if you feel like playing with the boundaries of your own sanity, but the subtext will always be that I'm a selfish loser with low self esteem and the attention span of a kitten filled with e-numbers. ...more

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Nov 05, 2016 Justin rated it it was amazing

This is the best book I've read this year. Period. Maybe last year, too. Maybe. I don't know. But this book is amazing. I just looked up synonyms for "amazing", and all of them are adjectives you can use to describe this book.

Man, John Updike just has this way of making the most mundane, ordinary stuff extraordinary. He takes pages and pages to set a scene or describe the inner thoughts of one of his main characters, and all of it is awesome. I mean there were paragraphs that went on for pages This is the best book I've read this year. Period. Maybe last year, too. Maybe. I don't know. But this book is amazing. I just looked up synonyms for "amazing", and all of them are adjectives you can use to describe this book.

Man, John Updike just has this way of making the most mundane, ordinary stuff extraordinary. He takes pages and pages to set a scene or describe the inner thoughts of one of his main characters, and all of it is awesome. I mean there were paragraphs that went on for pages to depict every single aspect of a scene, and I ate it all up like a beautifully crafted Caesar salad before the filet and baked potato arrived. That steakhouse analogy seems appropriate because this is like the Ruth's Chris of literature. There is so much more I want to do with this illustration, but I'm gonna stop myself and move on.

When I consider the plot of this story and imagine myself describing it to someone, it doesn't feel like an easy sell at all. I mean, here I am giving it five stars, and I feel like breaking down the story for someone will make them think I'm crazy. Like, "Alright, alright, check this out. This guy, Rabbit, yeah, not his real name. Long story. Anyway, dude has this wife and a kid and stuff and he has this boring job and then one day he just decides to run away from it all. It's crazy. And, man, I don't wanna run it for you, but he makes these crazy decisions and gets himself in some wild situations and I'll be damned if it really is just a whole awful, sad mess of a story, but it's awesome, man. It's so awesome. Sometimes nothing happens for a long time, but the writing is so good that you don't even really care. The characters are complex, too, and all developed and stuff and you just get lost in the story every time you pick the book up again. It's classic contemporary American literature or something. I don't know."

And that's how I would describe the book. Just like that. Because that's how I talk in real life when I'm not reviewing books on the internet.

I can't recommend this book enough. I've got some Roth and Bellow waiting now. Look at me getting all well rounded and cultured all of a sudden. Maybe I'll start writing serious reviews like I'm writing for The NY Times or something. Bigger adjectives and more pretentiousness and whatever. Start talking about existentialism and symbolism and the human condition. Maybe I'll turn a corner.

Nope.

...more

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Nov 23, 2008 brian rated it really liked it

bellow's writing blows my mind but rarely touches my heart. a handful of mailer's essays and novels are essential, but it's his guts and brain and balls and heart and the ferocity with which he lived life that's the real inspiration. roth? well, i've made my views on roth very well known in bookface world. and the few updike short stories i've read only convinced me that his elegant & writerly style really bugs the shit out of me.

all of 'em (bellow, mailer, roth, updike) found themselves as bellow's writing blows my mind but rarely touches my heart. a handful of mailer's essays and novels are essential, but it's his guts and brain and balls and heart and the ferocity with which he lived life that's the real inspiration. roth? well, i've made my views on roth very well known in bookface world. and the few updike short stories i've read only convinced me that his elegant & writerly style really bugs the shit out of me.

all of 'em (bellow, mailer, roth, updike) found themselves as the right people at the right time: white dudes in america when america was the shit and white dudes were kings of the shit. but they knew that their kingdom of shit, of course, owed much to the disenfranchisement of non-dudes and non-whites. and fools have always found 'em to be racist and/or sexist, not realizing that a post-war examination of racism and sexism was much of the point; that this conflict, that life as 'guilty royalty', lies at the heart of much of their work. i've always found mailer and roth to be -- wait for it, wait for it -- amongst the most compassionate of any and all writers. and they're hardasses. they accept no preconceived notions. they want to know, they NEED to know, even if they find themselves branded self-loathing jews or repressed homosexuals or shouted down by an angry panel of feminists...

well nobody catches more shit than updike and nobody gets more sucked off. and i, of course, found myself in the former camp. and digging it. updike, from my not-having-read-much-of-his-stuff perspective always kinda came off as some dull & smiling yuppie dick. and that obsession with the perfect, elegant, adjective-heavy sentence makes me wanna diarrhea. updike seemed kinda like the literary equivalent of billy joel sitting down for a lunch of kraft cheese and mayonnaise on wonder bread. and so i started the first Rabbit and my suspicions were immediately confirmed. i mean, those first two sentences:

Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it. Legs, shouts.

aaaarrrggghh! horrible. the kind of shit to make a writing teacher come in his/her jeans. and he uses all those writerly terms that don't really correspond to anything in real life. people talking are 'clucking' or 'chirping'; 'crisp' to describe a pair of slacks; or 'lumpy' to describe people or words or ideas or anything the hell else.

and it's not just, as many people have pointed out, that Rabbit is a dickhead -- it's that he's an uninteresting dickhead. and updike sets an uninteresting dickhead against a symbolically charged tapestry meant to represent a kind of microcosmic america. and it's dull and obvious and schematic and, again, writerly.

and then 1/2way through the book, neck deep in boredom and fury, something happened. rabbit and ruth (the tragic town slut he's shacked up with) run into rabbit's sister, who's headed down the same road as ruth... and it resonated. and as the events of the second half unfolded, i HATED updike even more as i realized that the bastard was fucking with me. and it was working. it had worked. and all that junk in the first half is suddenly given new significance by the events of the latter half and i was, yes, blown away by updike's compassion and understanding and skill.

so updike. my first book. made me cry. i'm not talking misty eyed and lump in the throat, but, like, tears running down my cheeks. not bad. and i feel okay upgrading updike from 'smiling yuppie dick' to 'subject of unfortunately cheery author photo'. and i just bought the second Rabbit book. we'll see. ...more

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Jul 16, 2016 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, american-20th-c, favorites, novels

This was the first and shortest of the Rabbit books from Updike. I think that the last two are better because Updike had 30-40 more years of maturity and writing under his belt but this book grabs you and doesn't let you go and makes you beg the the next one. The original concept behind the series is that Updike describes the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom in 1959 in Rabbit Run, 1969 in Rabbit Redux, 1979 in Rabbit is Rich, and 1989 in Rabbit at Rest. There is even an epilogue Rabbit Remembered This was the first and shortest of the Rabbit books from Updike. I think that the last two are better because Updike had 30-40 more years of maturity and writing under his belt but this book grabs you and doesn't let you go and makes you beg the the next one. The original concept behind the series is that Updike describes the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom in 1959 in Rabbit Run, 1969 in Rabbit Redux, 1979 in Rabbit is Rich, and 1989 in Rabbit at Rest. There is even an epilogue Rabbit Remembered in the short story collection Licks of Love.

Back to Rabbit Run, Harry Angstrom is a tall man of his times. About 23 years old and married to an alcoholic woman. The outlook is rather grim (no spoilers), but it is so well-written and realistic that the characters really leap from the pages and you want to root for Rabbit even when he is acting like a prick (which he does a lot). The descriptions of life in the US for this everyman character are priceless (and continue to capture the uniqueness of each era in every volume).

What is striking in Updike is how closely his descriptions of human relationships reveal the fissures and cracks that will ultimately lead to rupture or in rare cases reconciliation. He, albeit male, perpective of sexuality is incredibly realistic, the characters feel like you just sat next to them on the bus, or crossed them at the Five and Dime (if those even exist anymore). The evocation of America at the end of the 50s in Rabbit Run feels very real - the moral strictures of Eisenhower are still there, the wounds of McCarthyism are still fresh, and the Korean War is just over. The Cold War is certainly present as well. Another striking aspect is the frustration of Rabbit and at the same time his resignation to fate against which he feebly rattles his chains from time to time. Despite being a deeply tragic story in many ways, it introduces us to Updike's Everyman who will later takes us through 3 more decades of radical change - for him, for us, and for America.

I would highly recommend this book for those who wish to discover Updike who while perhaps not up in the Roth-Pynchon echelon of late-20th C writers is certainly very, very close with two Pulitzers (for the 3rd and 4th books). It is a fun and exciting read. Enjoy!

From a comment I made in a reading group on GR discovering Rabbit for the first time:

In Rabbit Run, I think that it is not a mid-life crisis that Harry is having, it is more that he is realizing that his actions have consequences. During his life as the high school star, he did not have to actually think about anything, he could get away with coasting (and boasting and bullying). Enter Janet and the unplanned pregnancy. Both of them are too young and too irresponsible to be parents. Janet drowns herself in alcohol unable to deal with the screaming baby and Rabbit, well, Rabbit runs. I think the book was trying to put the lie into the stereotypical Eisenhower era's idyllic 50s family in demonstrating how the lack of education on birth control and the authoritarian methods of parenting popular at the time only reproduce the same (or worse) behavior in the generation that follows. Each of the other Rabbit books does this kind of counter-example (against the 60s,70s and 80s respectively). If Updike were alive, he would probably point to Rabbit Redux and Rabbit Run and say, "THIS is why Drumpf is in the White House" meaning that the Rabbit half of the country (you will see that Rabbit remains an Angry White Man like my dad and like the cornerstone of Drumpf's support) hated their weak mothers (like Janet) at least subconsciously and would never, ever conceive of voting for HRC and so have to double-down on their bad choice by convincing themselves that his lies are truth and truth is "alternative fact" because otherwise, they would be forced to see the rot that forms the core of themselves. Rabbit Runs demonstrates that, in fact, actions do have consequences and that irresponsibility snowballs - sorry no spoilers - and Rabbit running away does not solve his fundamental questions because he is blaming his circumstances rather than looking inside himself for answers because that is too painful for him.
Does anyone see what I mean here? The danger of posting on FB or GR so close to waking up...
...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Richard Derus rated it it was ok

Get over it! Pull up your socks and get on with it! Sheez.

Book Circle Reads 96

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Book Description: Penguin's bumf--Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his — or any other — generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual g Get over it! Pull up your socks and get on with it! Sheez.

Book Circle Reads 96

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Book Description: Penguin's bumf--Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his — or any other — generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty — even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.

Ballantine's is a little better--To millions of Americans, Rabbit Angstrom is like a member of the family. They have followed him through RABBIT, RUN, RABBIT REDUX and RABBIT IS RICH. We meet him for the first time in this novel, when he is 22, and a salesman in the local department store. Married to the second best sweetheart of his high school years, he is the father of a preschool son and husband to an alcoholic wife. The unrelieved squalor and tragedy of their lives remind us that there are such people, and that salvation, after all, is a personal undertaking.

My Review: I suspect my hostility to this book stems from a lack of respect for Rabbit Angstrom. I knew guys like this, I could have been a guy like this, and I think reading this book held up too undistorted a mirror to the facets of my own psyche that I dislike the most for me to enjoy the book as a leisure read.

So now let me get at why I gave it such a low rating: I think Updike's writing is mediocre. I think he's gotten heaps of praise for being unsparing and a brilliant observer, both of which are undeniable, and then the flat-surfaced all-nuance-low-impact writing style in this book got a pass. It's BORING. The story infuriates me, yes, my issue there; but the way it's told...! Blahblahblahblah even in the most tragic moments. Like the Peanuts cartoon adults, the entire cast of the tale seem to honk and blatt, and nothing makes one sit up and take much notice of any one of them.

Flat flat flat. Untoasted white bread spread with Miracle Whip, topped with limp outer leaves of iceberg lettuce and slices of weak-kneed, pale-pink winter tomatoes, with one piece of undrained, undercooked bacon in the middle.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. ...more

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Mar 28, 2010 unknown rated it did not like it

Shelves: classics, did-not-finish, 30-day-book-challenge

You know what would be nice, is if there was a wikipedia for life, and every time you met someone, you could just give it a glance and see if, you know, you really want to be associated with that person.

Sure, it would backfire, it would reveal your prejudices and narrow-mindedness, your circle of friends might become a lot less varied and interesting. On the other hand, you'd never have to fake a conversation about football again, and you could easily avoid the total assholes like Rabbit Angstr You know what would be nice, is if there was a wikipedia for life, and every time you met someone, you could just give it a glance and see if, you know, you really want to be associated with that person.

Sure, it would backfire, it would reveal your prejudices and narrow-mindedness, your circle of friends might become a lot less varied and interesting. On the other hand, you'd never have to fake a conversation about football again, and you could easily avoid the total assholes like Rabbit Angstrom.

I didn't finish this book. I read 30 or 40 pages and I can't even remember the writing because never before have I hated a character so much. I am someone who never notices the annoying characters in books or movies; mostly, you have to reach a Bella Swan-level of idiocy before I'll start hating you. Rabbit did it within a few pages. I can decide what it was: was it when he berated his wife for being too fat and unkempt after giving birth to and caring for his child? Was it when he kept thinking about how dumb she was? Was it how he pulled that whole, "See you honey, I'm going to the store... forever!" trick, and ran off to sleep with his mistress and mope about his sad excuse for a life?

But this is an Important Book by a Famous Author, and who wants to admit defeat? So I went to wikipedia and I read the plot synopsis. Disgusted, I read about the rest of Rabbit Angstrom's life as told in Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and ~~Yay, Rabbit is Dead~~ Rabbit at Rest. Spoiler alert: he never stops being absolutely horrible for a single second. They say you shouldn't make snap judgments, but I'd wager running away from your wife and toddler son with nary a word is one of those times where basing your opinion on a first impression is ok.

Please, go ahead and tell me I am wrong for reviewing this without finishing it, for not appreciating Updike's prose, for not seeing how he has humanized a hateful man, for failing to realize the way Rabbit's life works as a metaphor for the deconstruction of masculine identity in post-WWII America, or how erectile dysfunction is a really big deal, or the lie of hyper-consumerism, or the empty pursuit of middle-class ideals. Then I can go ahead and make a snap judgment about you too (for clarity: JUST KIDDING!).

Sometimes you just don't want to read a nasty, ugly book about someone horrible. Let alone fucking four of them. This one's for you, wikipedia.

Facebook 30 Day Book Challenge Day 2: Least favorite book. ...more

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Feb 19, 2017 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, completist-book-club, classic, audio, library

Have you ever seen something noted because it is a representation of a specific thing? For example, a building might be marked with a plaque as a perfect representation of a type of architecture. Well, this book should be marked with a plaque as a perfect prose example of America in the late 50s/early 60s. The thoughts, ideas, acceptable social standards, treatment of women, etc. are so vivid and strongly represented, but soooooo dated!

The book is very interesting, but mainly held my attention t ...more

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Jul 16, 2014 Violet wells rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-american-fiction

I’ve read three or four Updike novels and I can’t recall a damn thing about any of them. Never a good sign. I was fifty pages in before I realised I’d already read this one. That in itself – to spend money on a book I’d already read – was irritating! Updike’s novels seem like misplaced objects in my life. He’s one of those writers I feel I’ve underappreciated and yet every time I give him another go I’m left underwhelmed. This isn’t a bad novel by any means. But I was relieved to finish it becau I’ve read three or four Updike novels and I can’t recall a damn thing about any of them. Never a good sign. I was fifty pages in before I realised I’d already read this one. That in itself – to spend money on a book I’d already read – was irritating! Updike’s novels seem like misplaced objects in my life. He’s one of those writers I feel I’ve underappreciated and yet every time I give him another go I’m left underwhelmed. This isn’t a bad novel by any means. But I was relieved to finish it because it’s not what I would call an enjoyable novel. It’s rather humourless and lacking in vitality for a novel written by such a young man. In terms of its scope it often felt like a short story or a novella that had been fattened up for consumption.

Updike is writing about the blindfolding tyranny of male vanity but I often felt he himself was guilty of it in the register of this novel’s voice. I couldn’t help thinking of our (English) young literary protégé Martin Amis. Like Updike’s Amis’ first novel was a sexy, cynical affair about a self-centred misogynistic young man. Except Amis gets us to like his hero by not asking us to like him. Updike, on the other hand, I always felt wants us to like Rabbit. He knows he shouldn’t but he can’t help himself. He’s trying to work Rabbit’s (for me inexistent) charm on us the reader as if he is a reflection of the writer himself. I never felt Updike was sufficiently detached from the character he created. Amis is a whole lot more subtle in creating his male monsters. Amis’ women are deliberately male projections. Updike’s are male projections but presented otherwise. When he gives us their perspective we discover they have nothing better to think about than Rabbit, usually in terms that gratify Rabbit’s vanity. When Rabbit’s supposedly irresistible virile charm also has the clergyman’s intelligent wife wobbling at the knees my suspension of disbelief was punctured. It was like Updike’s own vanity couldn’t resist another (gratuitous) female conquest.
Maybe part of the problem is that I’m English and didn’t find any connection to the suburban middle America community he was depicting but I found this hard work. It’s not a misogynist novel but it does have a lot of misogynist undertones, especially in its depiction of women as weak-kneed, gullible concubines (most evident in his patronising depiction of the clergyman’s wife where he had the opportunity to create a woman of some integrity).

Only the quality of the writing made it a 3 star novel instead of 2.
...more

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Jun 03, 2017 Robin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, literary-fiction, favourites, american

I'm kinda speechless. My mind is spinning from being held hostage by John Updike for the last two hours of reading this book, which is equal parts disturbing, relatable, repellant, tragic AND one of the most amazingly written books I've read.

Harry Angstrom (Rabbit) is 23. He was a one-time great basketball player in high school. Now, our tall protagonist is waking up to his real nightmare: he's married to an alcoholic with whom he has little in common (besides their two year old son and the baby I'm kinda speechless. My mind is spinning from being held hostage by John Updike for the last two hours of reading this book, which is equal parts disturbing, relatable, repellant, tragic AND one of the most amazingly written books I've read.

Harry Angstrom (Rabbit) is 23. He was a one-time great basketball player in high school. Now, our tall protagonist is waking up to his real nightmare: he's married to an alcoholic with whom he has little in common (besides their two year old son and the baby she is carrying), he has a mindless job selling vegetable peelers, and he is trapped. One night, with no premeditation, he does the despicable: he runs.

Yeah, he abandons his pregnant wife and little boy. Rabbit, as an astute Goodreads friend of mine said to me, is a Pig. Tis true, he's often acting like a jerk. But somehow John Updike, this literary craftsman extraordinaire, makes us understand him, feel his disappointment in his 1950's suburban hell, and hope for some kind of release.

There are stretches of this book where not much "happens" - but Updike captures the interior world of the characters so well. He depicts their thoughts and feelings in such a way that I am glued to the page. Despite the 1950's setting and his excellent depiction of this time, I am astonished at how modern this reads. The depiction of male sexuality is spot-on, and fairly graphic. Sex plays a big role in Rabbit's determination to find the elusive something that will give his life meaning, that something that satisfied him so well on the basketball court in years past.

Eccles, a priest who is trying to steer Rabbit in the right direction, uses religion as a beacon to bring Rabbit away from the dark side. But Rabbit is more interested in (an imagined?) flirtation with Eccles' wife than God. One of the most fascinating parts of the book is when Rabbit is playing golf with Eccles, and the game becomes metaphorical, with Rabbit struggling and getting stuck in the sand, then experiencing a perfect swing.

If the idea of rooting for such a character disgusts you, never fear. Rabbit is doomed to be punished - severely - for thinking he can escape his responsibilities. The tide bringing this punishment comes slowly. I could see it approaching inch by inch, feeling sicker as its destructive wave threatened, but powerless to move, witnessed its hideous, tragic crash. ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Fabian rated it really liked it

The very precision of words makes this Man-Bad-so-Man-Punished tale oh so jolting. A writer like this composes a cautionary story out of perfect and incredibly complex sentences. He is undoubtedly a poet, especially in his navigating the traditional ('somnambulent') realm of late '50s idyllic Americana gone to the dogs.

"On The Road" bears a comparison in its obvious Grownass-Young-Man-Seeking-Escape motif. The time-frames are also relatable. But this is closer akin to the intrepid tale of 50's S ...more

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Jan 23, 2008 Alan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: most-liked-review

I discovered Rabbit Angstrom and John Updike while sitting in the Intensive Care Waiting Room at a local hospital. My mother languished in a coma for one month before she finally found peace, and I spent most of those days and many of my nights in that waiting room. During much of that time I'd blown through typical waiting room crap like books with plots about overthrowing the government, stories about detectives who were psychoanalysts, stories about psychoanalysts who were detectives, etc. On ...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Erin rated it really liked it

Shelves: novels

If it's hard to love a book when you dislike the hero, it's harder still when the book leaves you cursing the nature of humanity.

I hate John Updike right now.

I hate him as an idealistic dreamer, for making me remember how ugly we are – all of us humans with our selfish hearts and boring thoughts, our fractious flaws, and our suffocating sense of doom and exceptionalism.

I hate him as a woman, for cringe-worthy moments of misogyny, for the distancing male sexual fixation, and for making me wonder ...more

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Nov 29, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

Guys are like that. Why blame Updike?

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Mar 04, 2009 Ben rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2009, feminism-and-or-gender-related, romantic-love-and-hate, memorable-characters, important-message, families

On the surface, Rabbit, Run is about a guy who runs around on his son and pregnant wife, and ends up living with a prostitute. Real interesting, right? Actually, yes. Because the characters come to life and they’re struggling with their own moral weaknesses and existential problems -- their problems and interactions are truly believable. So this is an interesting story, because Updike can write, and he pulls it off.

But first, I must explain why my rating is only 3 stars (or, 3 and a half, really ...more

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Aug 15, 2017 Perry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: stela-eða-láni

"If you have the guts to be yourself...other people'll pay your price."
--RABBIT ANGSTROM
---John Updike, "Rabbit, Run"

Down the Cunicular Hole, Yo

Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, 26, Mt. Judge, PA, married with a two-year-old son, is a Magipeeler salesman (not what he dreamed in high school basketball glory days). His wife Janice is expecting another child any day, as every night she boozes it up.

After another argument with Janice, Rabbit snaps, hit with an existential crisis, trapped by lifeless monog ...more

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Apr 11, 2007 Rebecca Waller rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Writers looking for writing inspiration

John Updike has a very non-traditional interpretation of redemption, and you find that in his main character, Harry Angstrom, also known as Rabbit. In this first Rabbit novel, he is 26, and he finds himself in crisis about where his life is headed. I found myself loving Rabbit and sympathizing with him (mostly), but also hating him and hating his choices. As a friend once put it to me, "He is Holden Caulfield grown up." It is a painful and powerful book. The writing is delicious, and I have neve ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Alex rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: sassy fannies

Shelves: reading-through-history, 2013, rth-lifetime, 2016, top-100, dick-lit

The Rabbit Series
Here's the thing about Updike: he's such a good writer. He's a pure natural. His sentences are incredibly good. (Here in Rabbit, Run, sometimes you can feel the effort a little; by the third book, Rabbit is Rich, he's flawless.) His characterization is brilliant: Rabbit most of all is one of the great real people in literature, and the supporting cast - his wife and child, among others - are also real individuals. And, listen: some writers are good at writing but not good at boo ...more

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Mar 11, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, novels

Something of a masterpiece, this first in the trilogy of five explores the universal themes of domestic humdrummery, fidelity, and the repercussions of discarded dreams. The titular Rabbit is a compelling portrayal of a now somewhat stock character, the coulda-been-a-contender (in this case basketball) bounced into a life of McJobs, dowdy small-town wives, and unwanted children. Updike’s novel is the best depiction of this soap-opera conceit I have read: he transforms every banal scene into some ...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Jason Pettus rated it did not like it

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label

Essay #48: Rabbit, Run (1960), by John Updike

The story in a nutshell:
(Much of today's recap was culled from Wikipedia, for reasons that are explained below.)

Released ...more

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Jan 10, 2014 Julie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: your-cheatin-heart, you-ll-need-a-cigarette, john-you-dirty-beautiful-bastard, what-a-character

If The Catcher in the Rye hit the American literary scene with shock and awe in 1951, then I can't even imagine what happened when Rabbit, Run hit the bookstores in 1960. My guess is that it wasn't exactly circulating amongst factory workers and housewives (remember when we used to have those here??), which is ironic, because it's largely about them.

This novel is very disturbing. I can't quite recommend it to you unless you can look me in the eye and tell me that you've read either Philip Roth o ...more

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May 18, 2008 Laura rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: writers

Shelves: pulitzer-prize-project

For the three days since I've finished this book I've been going back and forth about whether this is 5 stars, or 4, or 3. Part of the problem is John Updike himself. Liking him as a writer somehow feels politically incorrect. Even mentioning him in mixed company gets glances, "you're reading HIM?" The Rabbit books have always had an aura of ho hum who cares to me. I'd hear Rabbit blah blah and tune it out like it's hockey. I knew Updike was competent, certainly anyone picking up a random issue For the three days since I've finished this book I've been going back and forth about whether this is 5 stars, or 4, or 3. Part of the problem is John Updike himself. Liking him as a writer somehow feels politically incorrect. Even mentioning him in mixed company gets glances, "you're reading HIM?" The Rabbit books have always had an aura of ho hum who cares to me. I'd hear Rabbit blah blah and tune it out like it's hockey. I knew Updike was competent, certainly anyone picking up a random issue of the New Yorker would be aware of that. But I honestly didn't think his books would speak to me.

I was wrong. I'm in a little bit of a post-novel haze, reminiscent of how I felt after finishing my first Fante novel, where I'm asking myself, why don't other writers speak of this person all the time and how is it that I haven't read him sooner? Seriously, Updike could be one of the most underrated overrated writers of all time. Everyone knows his name and yet contemporary writers rarely call him an inspiration. I always read everything on 2 levels: as a reader and as a writer. I can't help it. Sure, I can sit back and enjoy a book, but even then I'm picking it apart to try to understand WHY I'm enjoying it. So I'm sitting here now, for three days now, trying to figure out what he does and how he does it so well.

Since I was told I would hate John Updike because he's a racist misogynist, I wasn't prepared for the level of empathy and depth and real understanding of the human condition he presents. Truly brilliant the way he can jump heads and bodies and take the reader right along without a hitch. I'm trying to write this without spoilers but I just have to say I've never felt my heart break through any work of fiction or film or Kodak commercial the way this book broke my heart. Like real up-all-night can't control the sobs weeping because he's just that good. He manages to make you empathize with everyone, despised or not, and the course of events is both utterly tragic and completely logical. As a reader I probably would not feel the need to reread this book because it's not plot-heavy, not particularly complex. But as a writer I'd put it next to my other bibles and refer to it over and over as one of those magic texts that achieve what so few writers are able to achieve: Life. Truth. Depth on the page.

So I'm on a John Updike bender at the moment. I've heard the Rabbits go downhill, so we'll see. But for now I'm enjoying the ride.

...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Vit Babenco rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Rabbit, Run is a book of running nowhere.
We grow up, we marry, we work, we have children and one day we see that our life became a drab routine and total disappointment. And we wish to return to the days of our youth when everything was new and the world shined. And we revolt and run away… But is there a place to run to?
“His idea grows, that it will be a monster, a monster of his making. The thrust whereby it was conceived becomes confused in his mind with the perverted entry he forced, a few ho ...more

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Aug 06, 2013 Caroline rated it did not like it

Shelves: waste-of-trees, did-not-finish, how-did-this-get-published, dropped-series

***ALL SPOILERS HIDDEN***

(Full disclosure: book abandoned at page 134 [out of 264 pages].)

Never have I read a book with a more unlikable main character. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom is a married man with a toddler son who despises his wife and (view spoiler). At least, that’s as much as I know. Maybe (view spoiler). This book is so insufferable that I abandon ***ALL SPOILERS HIDDEN***

(Full disclosure: book abandoned at page 134 [out of 264 pages].)

Never have I read a book with a more unlikable main character. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom is a married man with a toddler son who despises his wife and (view spoiler). At least, that’s as much as I know. Maybe (view spoiler). This book is so insufferable that I abandoned it and have no regrets about doing so.

Where Updike failed miserably was in not making Rabbit able to be sympathized with. The man is quite simply a jerk, and because of that it’s impossible to care about his story. The first time he and his wife are featured together, he's belittling her in his head the whole time, ruminating over her “dumb mouth” and her thinning hair and resenting her pregnancy and how clumsy it makes her. What brought this once-happy couple to this point? Why is there tension between them? Why does Janice have an alcohol problem? Updike showed absolutely none of their rocky history. The next thing I know, Rabbit has left the scene, relieved, and I'm expected to sympathize with him, because somehow I’m supposed to understand his doing so is a matter of necessity. All I could focus on instead was that this man is an immature, misogynistic cad. This poor behavior continues when Rabbit later meets a young woman, (view spoiler). There was just no way to like this character, no matter how hard I tried.

On the technical level, Updike’s writing is often bogged down by description that doesn’t always make sense because it’s so obscure. Many sentences also are much too long and therefore hard to follow:

Now, after the magnolias have lost their grip but before any but the leaves of the maple have the breadth to cast much shade, the cherry trees and crabapples and, in a remote corner of the grounds, a solitary plum tree ball with bloom, a whiteness the black limbs seem to gather from the blowing clouds and after a moment hurl away, so the reviving grass is bleached by an astonishing storm of confetti.

These incredibly long, overly descriptive sentences slow the pace considerably.

Additionally, there are chunks of the book devoted to driving around town (names of streets and the exact density of the surrounding brush included); a long, unexciting golf scene; and a gardening scene. There is no suspense or urgency to Rabbit, Run. Long, leisurely sentences don't help matters.

Final Verdict: Skip this and read Tom Perrotta’s Little Children instead; it handles the same general topic--the disillusionment of married suburbanites--with likable, relatable characters and sharp, expert writing. ...more

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Nov 16, 2018 Lea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, read-in-english, usa

I read "Rabbit is Rich", the third book in the 4 book Rabbit-series almost ten years ago. I got it in the library in Copenhagen and didn't know it wasn't a stand alone. I loved the book and promised myself I'd read all four novels and start from the beginning. I was in a weird headspace at the time and somehow John Updike didn't seem like a priority, so he took a backseat.

I don't really mind having waited to read the first in the series now, because I got to read it now and I absolutely loved i ...more

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Apr 16, 2008 Yulia added it

Shelves: repelled-by

Damn Updike, I wanted to find an immediate reason to dislike this, but he's so smooth in his text, I have no excuse to not continue reading it: it's very frustrating for us curmudgeons.

*********************************************************

Okay, that didn't last long. I refuse to finish this book. I find the prose self-indulgent, the understanding of human nature self-serving, and the protagonist impossible to empathize with. Would reading this book help me understand individuals I find narci ...more

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Feb 13, 2011 Lawyer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: death, fathers-and-sons, fiction, loss, love, marriage, mothers-and-children, responsibility, tragedy, twentieth-century

I confess I haven't read much of John Updike's work. About thirty years ago I flipped through "Couples" for the prurient interest it sparked at its publication. I laughed through "The Witches of Eastwick"--the movie, not the book. But I never read any of Updike's Rabbit Angstrom novels. My well read neighbor who is also a former professor of psychology who taught me History and Systems of Psychology recently told me I had missed out on some fine writing by neglecting Updike, particularly the Rab I confess I haven't read much of John Updike's work. About thirty years ago I flipped through "Couples" for the prurient interest it sparked at its publication. I laughed through "The Witches of Eastwick"--the movie, not the book. But I never read any of Updike's Rabbit Angstrom novels. My well read neighbor who is also a former professor of psychology who taught me History and Systems of Psychology recently told me I had missed out on some fine writing by neglecting Updike, particularly the Rabbit series.

So, since my friend and former teacher, has never steered me wrong on a book recommendation, I picked up "Rabbit, Run" and began to read it. As he usually is, my former professor is right. I've missed out on some fine writing, a matter that I will rectify by reading the rest of the Rabbit Quartet.

Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom did one thing well. He was a star basketball player in high school. Rabbit set records on the court. But those days are over. Now he demonstrates a vegetable peeler in five and dimes around his home town in Brewer, Pennsylvania. Updike introduces the reader to Rabbit Angstrom walking home from the job he hates to his wife, Janice. He will be late getting home. Angstrom comes across a group of kids playing basketball at a hoop mounted on a telephone pole. For a short time Angstrom becomes the star he once was. Updike's rendering of this scene is magical, his prose creating Rabbit's movements on the street court pure, simple, and full of a rhythm that urges the reader to speak the words to hear the lyricism of them.

The end of the game draws Rabbit back into the reality of the life he does not love. He walks to his apartment to find Janice drunk. Their child is not there. Neither is his car. Janice has spent the day with her mother and left their car at her parents' house. Nelson, their son, is at Rabbit's parents' home. The woman who had won Rabbit's love during long afternoons on the bed of a friend's apartment is not as pretty as she was on those sun filled afternoons. Now her skin is sallow. Her body has lost its suppleness in Rabbit's eyes. When he leaves to get his car and his son, Rabbit decides he has lost himself. He walks to retrieve his car and drives silently away from his in-laws' home. Rabbit imagines driving through the night to end up somewhere on the gulf of Mexico looking up into a perfect sky filled with brilliant stars.

Rabbit's getaway is unsuccessful. Driving into the hills of West Virginia, he ends lost on top of a mountain lovers' lane and wearily drives home, but not to his wife. Instead he seeks out his old basketball coach and asks to stay with him for a few days. His coach berates him for his immaturity but puts him up. Then, with complete inconsistency, his coach takes Rabbit with him to a date with a woman he stakes to a meal from time to time. His lady friend will bring a friend along for Rabbit, too. Rabbit's date lives in an apartment of her own, but tells him she does nothing for a living. He quickly offers to help her out with her utilities and within a day has wrangled his way into a new home, leaving his wife and son.

If there is one thing that Rabbit loves more than the exhilaration of his glorious moments on the basketball court it is sex, though he justifies his lust by insisting that it is love. Written in 1960, "Rabbit, Run" is a frank portrayal of male sexuality, predatory, manipulative and selfish.

Updike introduces the Episcopalian Priest, Jack Eccles, as Rabbit's conscience. Eccles will make it his mission to reunite Rabbit and Janice. An unobservant innocent, Eccles cannot see that Rabbit even sees the Reverend's wife as another woman who recognizes him as a man who loves women. The sexual tension between Rabbit and the minister's wife is palpable, whether it is real or only in Rabbit's egocentric imagination.

Rabbit's life is a train wreck waiting to happen. Tragedy is inevitable. John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom is the perfect portrayal of a man at odds with himself and the world in which he lives. Rabbit runs from responsibility but he is incapable of escaping it. John Updike created an excruciatingly moving novel capturing the sense of post-modern dissatisfaction and self absorption. It is a small wonder that Updike's four volumes detailing the life of Rabbit Angstrom appear on the New York Times twenty five item list of the most influential literary works of the twentieth century. ...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Marvin rated it it was amazing

To those who gave this book bad reviews because they hate Rabbit. YOU"RE SUPPOSED TO HATE RABBIT!!! He is everything bad about post-modern culture and the American dream. Updike's brilliant novel is supposed to spit in your face. It may seem a little dated now but Updike caught the neuroses and turmoil of middle class 20th century American perfectly. I don't know. Maybe we are not even meant to enjoy this novel. Some great novels are not meant to entertain but to inform and enlighten. This is on ...more

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Aug 23, 2015 Andrew Smith rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: not-finished

I really didn't like this book. In fact I got to about half way and gave up in despair. I’d really wanted to like it – to love it, in fact – and so I was really disappointed to have to abandon it.

I'm a big fan of American literature and gobble up books by Auster, Roth, Wolfe, Franzen and even Salinger, as well as any number of contemporary thriller writers. In fact, I've struggled with the work of very few authors from the States, with only DeLillo springing readily to mind. So I was confident I I really didn't like this book. In fact I got to about half way and gave up in despair. I’d really wanted to like it – to love it, in fact – and so I was really disappointed to have to abandon it.

I'm a big fan of American literature and gobble up books by Auster, Roth, Wolfe, Franzen and even Salinger, as well as any number of contemporary thriller writers. In fact, I've struggled with the work of very few authors from the States, with only DeLillo springing readily to mind. So I was confident I'd relish a book described by some critics as the best American post-war novel.

For those who have no knowledge of this book I’ll give a brief introduction. Published in 1960 it tells of a 26 year old former high school basketball star, Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom, who decides one day to run off and abandon his pregnant wife and young child. After driving all night he eventually finds himself back in his home city where he looks up his former coach. This leads to a meeting with a part-time prostitute who provides a temporary home for him. That’s pretty much where I gave up – well, in truth I ploughed on a little further but nothing much happened and after an excruciatingly dull section I was wrestled into submission.

Now don't get me wrong, there's a certain lyrical rhythm about the prose and some of the sentences were extremely well crafted by a writer who obviously knew have to link words together. There were short sections that I quite enjoyed, but these were consistently followed by long rambling paragraphs that just switched me off.

In concept, Rabbit himself is an actually an interesting character. He clearly dislikes his current life and can't escape the feeling that there's something better out there waiting for him, if only he can find it. There’s a feeling that his best years are already behind him, but still… why should he settle for his current mundane existence with a spouse who drinks her days away and now clearly irritates him. So what is it that failed to ignite any passion in this tale for me? I think it was the feeling of depression that imbued the whole thing, together with a preponderance of conversations and situations that just seemed to go nowhere. I didn't actually like Rabbit much (I'd guess I wasn't supposed to) but this also meant I didn't really care what became of him. And there was something about the period and the place that felt too unfamiliar, too unexciting – though I do think this would have been different for a reader who had more familiarity with either, or both.

Rabbit is interested in women – very interested – and there’s quite a bit of commentary on his thoughts about just about every female he comes into contact with. Most of them lustful and very descriptive. He’s also a Christian and his meetings with Jack Eccles, a young Episcopal priest who tries to re-unite him with his wife, were some of the best sections. But I just kept thinking that if only he'd continued driving... that would be a book I'd rather read: a road tale or a story of a young man finding new experiences in a strange town miles from home. I just didn't like the way he (partially) gave up, driving back to where he came from to continue his life amongst the same people in the same place.

Anyway, I think I’ll be in the minority but my overall feeling is that this book is a big ‘miss’ for me. My one star rating reflects my failure to finish it.
...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Jim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 1001-bymrbyd

Holy Hannah! I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. Actually, this is my first Updike book, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Not that it was a pleasant read, necessarily; it may be the only book I've ever read where all the major characters had serious flaws. Rabbit (Harry Angstrom) is immature, irresponsible, selfish and narcissistic, and those are just his best qualities! He's oversexed, his wife is a frigid drunk, and you don't need a crystal ball to see where this one's h Holy Hannah! I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. Actually, this is my first Updike book, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Not that it was a pleasant read, necessarily; it may be the only book I've ever read where all the major characters had serious flaws. Rabbit (Harry Angstrom) is immature, irresponsible, selfish and narcissistic, and those are just his best qualities! He's oversexed, his wife is a frigid drunk, and you don't need a crystal ball to see where this one's headed. So here I am, reading this book in which I'm feeling nothing but contempt for the main characters, and I can barely make myself put the darn thing down. It was absolutely engrossing from start to finish.

I think the only thing that bothered me about this tale is that Mr. Updike was fond of very long rambling run on sentences, paragraphs really, that were somewhat confusing. This was probably a writer's device to portray confusion in the mind of the subject but it served to befuddle me just as much. Another thing that had me puzzled was the sexual content. Now this book was apparently banned for explicit sex, among other things; how's this for explicit sex:

Rough with herself, she forces the dry other into his face, coated with cool pollen that dissolves. He opens his eyes, seeking her, and sees her face a soft mask gazing downward calmly, caring for him, and closes his eyes on the food of her again; his hand abandoned on the breadth of her body finds at arm's length a split pod, an open fold, shapeless and simple. They enter a lazy space. He wants the time to stretch long, to great length and thinness. As they deepen together he feels impatience that through all their twists they remain separate flesh; he cannot dare enough, now that she is so much his friend in this search; everywhere they meet a wall. The body lacks voice to sing it's own song. Impatience tapers; she floats through his blood as under his eyelids a salt smell, damp pressure, the sense of her smallness... You get the picture.

I don't know how that passage and others like it in the book portray explicit sex. Cool pollen? Floats through his blood? I don't even know what the heck went on there!

In spite of the very minor observations just mentioned this is a great read, a study in morality really. My favorite quote was uttered by Rabbit's old coach Tothero: Right and wrong aren't dropped from the sky. We. We make them. Against misery. Invariably, Harry, invariably

As a last note, I would like to make a mental thank you to Mr. Updike for refraining from beating the sports thing to death here. I can't abide basketball. Never could. That's the main reason I held off on starting this book for so long. ...more

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Goodreads Librari...: book listed incorrectly as Kindle edition but is ebook	2	14	Apr 29, 2019 04:02AM
101 Books to Read...: February Read - Rabbit, Run	3	3	Feb 03, 2019 08:17AM
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About John Updike

John Updike

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John Hoyer Updike was an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit Remembered). Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class," Updike is well known for his careful craftsmanship and prolific writing, havin ...more