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A review by hernamewaslily
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
4.0
John Updike’s 1960 novel, ‘Rabbit, Run,’ is the first of a tetralogy which follows the life and times of Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom. In this novel, Rabbit is a twenty-six year old former high-school basketball star who is fed up with his life: he has grown to detest his alcoholic wife, he struggles to connect with his toddler son, and he hates his job as a door-to-door salesman peddling a device called the ‘MagiPeeler.’
One evening, after having got home from work to find his pregnant wife drunk, his son at his parents, and his car left parked outside his in-laws, Rabbit decides to escape it all. Initially he plans on driving as far south as he can, but he doesn’t make it very far, instead getting cold feed and returning to his hometown where he shacks up with a sometime prostitution called Ruth he meets through his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero - a rather slimy character that lost his job due to an unexplained scandal - following what @quietly.arrayed deems as one of his ‘favourite literary double dates.’ Following this, Rabbit’s life falls into a tailspin, and he spends the rest of the novel reckoning with what to do next. This all reaches it breaking point when his wife goes into labour and Rabbit is forced to confront his future as a husband, a father, and a man.
One of the hosts of my favourite book podcast, the sadly now-defunct Slate Audio Book Club, described this novel as a ‘companion to The Catcher in the Rye,’ which probably explains why I like it so much. Like J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (my all-time favourite book), ‘Rabbit, Run’ offers a stunningly witty and beautifully rendered critique of 1950s American culture, ranging from the nuclear family, American consumerism, class mobility, and religion, to psychoanalysis, sexual promiscuity, gender relations, and death - all of which is contained in around 300 pages.
It is also an incredibly horny little book.
The novel is laden with sexual references, sexual commentary, and sexual scenes. Sometimes they are titillating and gratuitous, often Updike allows us into the inner-thoughts of Rabbit who can’t seem to keep it in his pants and assumes every woman he meets wants to bang him, but other times the novel’s treatment of sex is surprisingly honest and real. For example, one evening not long after having given birth, Rabbit attempts to sleep with wife, but all she can think about is the new moves he has learned from his ‘whore.’ Another example comes (pun somewhat intended) when Rabbit asks Ruth to give him a blowjob - a rarity in those days apparently - following an argument about her career as a professional girlfriend which he both hates and loves about her.
I really loved this book. The more I think about it, the more I like it. A genuinely superb novel and one I would recommend to anyone.
One evening, after having got home from work to find his pregnant wife drunk, his son at his parents, and his car left parked outside his in-laws, Rabbit decides to escape it all. Initially he plans on driving as far south as he can, but he doesn’t make it very far, instead getting cold feed and returning to his hometown where he shacks up with a sometime prostitution called Ruth he meets through his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero - a rather slimy character that lost his job due to an unexplained scandal - following what @quietly.arrayed deems as one of his ‘favourite literary double dates.’ Following this, Rabbit’s life falls into a tailspin, and he spends the rest of the novel reckoning with what to do next. This all reaches it breaking point when his wife goes into labour and Rabbit is forced to confront his future as a husband, a father, and a man.
One of the hosts of my favourite book podcast, the sadly now-defunct Slate Audio Book Club, described this novel as a ‘companion to The Catcher in the Rye,’ which probably explains why I like it so much. Like J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (my all-time favourite book), ‘Rabbit, Run’ offers a stunningly witty and beautifully rendered critique of 1950s American culture, ranging from the nuclear family, American consumerism, class mobility, and religion, to psychoanalysis, sexual promiscuity, gender relations, and death - all of which is contained in around 300 pages.
It is also an incredibly horny little book.
The novel is laden with sexual references, sexual commentary, and sexual scenes. Sometimes they are titillating and gratuitous, often Updike allows us into the inner-thoughts of Rabbit who can’t seem to keep it in his pants and assumes every woman he meets wants to bang him, but other times the novel’s treatment of sex is surprisingly honest and real. For example, one evening not long after having given birth, Rabbit attempts to sleep with wife, but all she can think about is the new moves he has learned from his ‘whore.’ Another example comes (pun somewhat intended) when Rabbit asks Ruth to give him a blowjob - a rarity in those days apparently - following an argument about her career as a professional girlfriend which he both hates and loves about her.
I really loved this book. The more I think about it, the more I like it. A genuinely superb novel and one I would recommend to anyone.