Rabbit, Run - John Updike

[abcdefz]

...anybody out there ever read any Updike? I read S on vacation last year and didn't think much of it, but now I'm reading Rabbit, Run which is good stuff -- it's like a more humane Tropic of Cancer, sort of.

I cracked open the book at the library, and the opening paragraph alone was so well-written, I checked out Rabbit Angstrom, which has all four Rabbit books.


Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it. Legs, shouts. The scrape and snap of Keds on loose alley pebbles seems to catapult their voices high into the moist March air blue above the wires. Rabbit Angstrom, coming up the alley in a business suit, stops and watches, though he's twenty-six and six three. So tall, he seems an unlikely rabbit, but the breadth of white face, the pallor of his blue irises, and a nervous flutter under his brief nose as he stabs a cigarette into his mouth partially explain the nickname, which was given to him when he too was a boy. He stands there thinking, the kids keep coming, they keep crowding you up.

Lookit that. Damn! "Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it. Legs, shouts." You've got the picture immediately -- "Legs, shouts."

"...though he's twenty-six and six three."

"The scrape and snap of Keds on loose alley pebbles."

Nice. (y)

[b-grrrlie]

I know that I've read that book about 25 years ago, but I have no recollections of what it's like. I have a couple of other Updike's books (In the beauty of the lilies and Friends from Philadelphia), but I still haven't read those even tho I've had those for yonks. I really should read more, I always keep buying books and then they just end up in the shelf unread....
Maybe I should give up solving sudokus on my way to work on the bus.... pity it's such a short journey...

[ms.peachy]

I had a crack at it years ago but couldn't get into it. Or any other Updike, for that matter. But, I'd be willing to give it another go - if I remember next time I'm at the library I'll see if it's in. Why not.

[Echewta]

I met John's borther Wake one time.

[abcdefz]

I met John's borther Wake one time.


The "sore ass" joke was much better.

[abcdefz]

I had a crack at it years ago but couldn't get into it. Or any other Updike, for that matter. But, I'd be willing to give it another go - if I remember next time I'm at the library I'll see if it's in. Why not.


I'll reserve judgement for the next 70 pages, but the main problem seems to be the title character is supposed to be -- I think he's supposed to be -- sort of roguishly charming because he leaves his wife and womanizes, etc. But I think there are some pointers in there that indicate that that may be intentionally misleading, and there'll be some comeuppance involved. That's a little iffy, though, and I kind of hate the adulterer-as-model-of-masculinity thing that goes on with some of these authors (Hemmingway, John Irving, or Anne Tyler on the flip side).

We'll see. It's a compelling read, though -- I plowed through 150 pages in 24 hours while still exercising, working on a painting, etc. (y)

[b-grrrlie]

How can you read while working on a painting? :confused:

[abcdefz]

That was poorly written. Sorry.

What I meant was that I had all kinds of stuff going on this weekend and still managed to read 150 pages during an active twenty-four hour period. (y)