Reading List Completists discussion
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Rabbit, Run
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Rabbit, Run but John Updike
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Matthew, Assistant List Master
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rated it 4 stars
Jan 23, 2017 06:20AM
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I ordered my copy last night! It should arrive tomorrow. :D
I read the Rabbit tetralogy last year. It is one helluva ride. Starts out amazingly fast in Rabbit Run. You'll love "Rabbit" Angstrom (more interesting than Otto or Wyatt or Recktail, William ;)
I'm next in line for a library ebook copy. Should be here in plenty of time to join in on the discussion this month. I'm excited!!
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My copy arrived last night. I hope to be able to start tonight. :D
I usually can't stand it when books are written in the present tense. I have actually passed on reading books before because of this. Somehow with this one it's okay.
This has always been one of my fantasies: just leaving everything.
There sure are some odd people in this book. =\
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Matthew wrote: "As I try and never read ahead of time what a book is about, I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. So far it seems like a mid-life crisis story."I read this years ago, and liked it, but you're right: it's a mid-life crisis story.
I have just finished it. I didn't love it, but it packs a great punch. It is interesting without being enjoyable.By the way, I got the sense Harry/Rabbit was too young to have a midlife crisis, it's more of a crisis crisis, I reckon
Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This book is not bad (so far) but I am not exactly enjoying it. I am not sure how to explain it. It is a midlife crisis book, so to speak, even though Rabbit is only in his 20's. Things were different back then I guess. He describes his wife as though she were an old lady but she's like 22.
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The wife's reaction to him after she has the baby is where I am and WOW. I'm like ooookay then. Haha.
Janet matures into a more sane and interesting character in the other Rabbit books. In Rabbit Run, I think that it is not a mid-lofe 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...
Fino wrote: "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...."This is a brilliant analysis, in my view.
I doubt anyone will see this comment at this point, but I am leaving it anyway. :P I just want it to be known that I continued on with the Rabbit novels after we read this first one as a group and all I can say is it was amazing—and I say that despite giving the second entry only two stars! The novels as a whole are just a very cool and engrossing experience. I finished the last book in October 2019 and BAWLED at the end of it. And now Updike is one of my favorite authors. I am grateful to have discovered an author I like so much through Goodreads, specifically, through the Completists group. <3
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That is an awesome story! I am so glad this group helped you find Updike. I have been meaning to continue, but it just kind of fell through the cracks. Your follow-up is certainly inspiring - I might have to get to more of these sooner than later (even if book two is only two stars!)
