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Rabbit Redux
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Rabbit Redux
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I am currently reading #3 Rabbit is Rich.
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I suppose this book could have been far worse. I hated Rabbit, and Janice. The 'trap a square conservative and make him live with his opposite' story never really seems very convincing either, and Jill and Skeeter are as annoying as Rabbit, just different. But Updike writes great descriptions, and when he is not channeling too much James Joyce I like his writing well enough to not mind the awful characters so much. The story, set in 1969, does seem to capture a good snapshot of life in that year, at least for some people, but it makes me especially glad I was born later so I didn't have to live in such an awful society. Certainly the world this book portrays feels like the ones in Middlesex and Invisible Man(Ellison), so it would seem that several different men portray that era similarly. The three books make an interesting comparison, btw., though it would be nice to also include some female perspectives for a more well-rounded image of the late 60's. Hmmm.I didn't start with book 1 first, and maybe I'd like the series better if read in order, but maybe not. I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads.
Rating: 3 starsUpdike is a very talented author and I do like his writing style. I found this book to be more racist and mysogynistic than the other books of his I have read, so that put a damper on my enjoyment. He also has a tendency to get crude, which I don't care for, either.
The book does seem to accurately depict the time period and attitudes being protrayed (late 60's - early 70s). That aspect of the book was pretty genius. Most of the characters, especially Rabbit, were highly unlikeable. The only likeable characters were Nelson and Jill. I think some of the events of the book seemed far-fetched and exaggerated, especially toward the end.
read May 2018 (review written at the time):Well, that was painful. This was my third try with John Updike. I read Rabbit, Run and The Witches of Eastwick previously – they were okay, but not more than that. I decided to give John another chance for my A-Z classic author challenge (2018). I see I gave Rabbit, Run a 4* review – that may have been rounded up (because I don’t remember it fondly).
I suppose on the one hand this novel is a real slice of 1960s America from the point of view of a completely useless main character (Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom), sleepwalking through life. Some of the book is just plain hard to read because it is so full of loathing (this is coming from Updike). Actually, all of the characters are useless; and many are appalling. I don’t think this novel has aged well. There is the odd interesting idea but they are never explored in any depth because none of the characters show any kind of insight.
I am quite sure there are novels that can connect the contemporary reader with the social issues, and broader world issues (Vietnam War) from the perspective of a middle class, rust belt living character within that time period. However, this is not one of them. The book is a bit of a ‘master class’ though, of how a writer’s feelings can overwhelm his novel. 2* I would not recommend this book to anyone.
I wasn’t into Rabbit, Run and this one was on my TBR this year because I wanted to take it off my list. I felt the same way, and ended up giving it 2 stars. The reason I didn’t give it just 1 was that I did understand what it was trying to get at. A conventional layabout in his own life that has bought the lies of America and American manhood because he has no reason not to. It validates him as a man who is in actuality not a heroic patriot but “an observer in his own life” as his sister describes. It shows how the holes blown in that ideal by the Vietnam war and the counter culture of the 60s and 70s, and how this would shake a man with only that illusion for stability into a spiral. I get that. It’s also why I can accept the strong racism and misogyny in his narration: it’s not about endorsing these things, but showing the mind of how guys like him did think at the time (but it did find it really inconsistent that the racism is conveniently not in his narration in the previous one until its plot relevant here)
However…I didn’t overall find this book successful in what it was trying to pull off. I feel like the main reason for this is both books (haven’t read rabbit is rich yet) seem to want us to feel sympathy for Rabbit where none is textually justified. We don’t see anything within his narration that gives the glimpse of the deeper soul of a man who deserves any of the things he feels entitled to. This includes his attempting to be a good dad to Nelson- there’s just no emotional pull about how he really feels beyond he feels like his son should respect him.
The book also seems to want the reader to feel for Rabbit because Janice walks out on him with Charlie because she feels stifled and traumatised by accidentally killing their daughter. And the narrative judges Janice harshly for this to the extent I do feel is a bit unintentionally misogynistic, especially since in the previous book we are supposed to feel sympathy for Rabbit as he cheats and commits sexual assault against his wife when HE leaves for feeling stifled? (No actual unresolved trauma when he bails at first of course). I feel like the intent was “flawed American man whose tragedy is his adherence to this bigoted traditional worldview is that it doesn’t come through for him anymore and leaves him behind”, but the actual effect was more “feel sorry for this entitled man who is afflicted by the exact things he does to others, which you should also feel sorry for him about that because he had vague ennui”. OOOh Boy, miss me with that!
Also, I get that the motif of him as the former sports star is supposed to reflect the expected glory never achieved- in line with his worldview. But man, every time the book is like “and he used to be such a basketball star!” to get me to empathize with him, I just disliked him more. I do not get the mythology and pedestalization of sports. “Oh, he was so good at throwing balls in highschool though” …and? So what? That doesn’t mean anything.
His ‘descent’ into the commune is also, as someone else mentioned, just not believably transitioned into in my opinion. His narration from when they bring in Skeeter and onwards also shows that he actually isn’t changed by the experience, so both the believability that he would do this and any narrative power of it seems quite undermined.
Also this book ends as badly as this first with nothing changed. Ugh, part 3 is going on next year’s TBR so I can finally clear Rabbit from life.
Although I liked the first one better, this book is still a beauty. Updike writes with a mastery and facility of our American way of speech. His words are beautifully descriptive.
For example:
"There was a time—the year after leaving, even five years after when this homely street, with its old-fashioned high crown, its sidewalk blocks tugged up and down by maple roots, its retaining walls of sandstone and railings of painted iron and two-family brickfront houses whose siding imitates gray rocks, excited Rabbit with the magic of his own existence. These mundane surfaces had given witness to his life; this cup had held his blood; here the universe had centered, each downtwirling maple seed of more account than galaxies. No more. Jackson Road seems an ordinary street anywhere. Millions of such American streets hold millions of lives, and let them sift through, and neither notice nor mourn, and fall into decay, and do not even mourn their own passing but instead grimace at the wrecking ball with the same gaunt facades that have outweathered all their winters. However steadily Mom communes with these maples—the branches’ misty snake-shapes as inflexibly fixed in these two windows as the leading of stained glass—they will not hold back her fate by the space of a breath; nor, if they are cut down tomorrow to widen Jackson Road at last, will her staring, that planted them within herself, halt their vanishing. And the wash of new light will extinguish even her memory of them. Time is our element, not a mistaken invader. How stupid, it has taken him thirty-six years to begin to believe that.”
He writes words that are so telling of human nature and sometimes quite depressing. Like:
That's the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.”
and: "That's the trouble with caring about anybody, you begin to feel overprotective. Then you begin to feel crowded.”
and: "It comes to him: growth is betrayal. There is no other route. There is no arriving somewhere without leaving somewhere.”
Rabbit is older, but not necessarily more mature. And unfortunately the people around him are not any better. Nelson, the child is the most grown up of the characters. I am curious about what Updike will do with him in the next installment.