Ms Pearl...Nancy...I tried.

In fact I spent 5 days trying and got to around page 250 out of a weighty 400. But as your Rule of Fifty implies, life is too short to waste on reading a book which really isn't doing anything for me. Actually, it started off OK. Harry Angstrom's wife leaves him, and every reader can see how Harry's concept of his masculinity makes it pretty hard for anyone to stick with him in a long term relationship. But at the point I stopped reading it, the story seemed to have degenerated into some sort of bizarre and totally unreal collection african-americans, rich whites, and Harry's wacky family.

I couldn't really make sense of a lot of the book at any level. I mean, what does this mean:

"...he lifts his head fastidiously, as if to watch the television..."

fastidiously??

and

"...he sees very clearly, as we see in the etched hour before snow."

Huh?

Maybe I haven't lived in snow enough, or with enough african-americans, but I couldn't relate to most of this story at all.

I think John Updike goes onto my 'don't bother' list.

It gets 2.5 stars only because I have a feeling that more intelligent people than me would find it a much more valid and interesting read. ( )

2385 Rabbit Redux, by John Updike (read 21 May 1991) This is the account of Rabbit in 1969. It is the most awful, obscene, boring nauseating book that there could possibly be. His wife leaves him and he takes up with Jill, an 18-year-old moron, and Skeeter, a filthy black Vietnam veteran. The language of the book is a total affront and the characters are inconceivable and impossible. The blurbs for the book, on the dust jacket, are outlandish--e.g., "it is the best thing around"--no one could possibly believe this. It "will probably change your life"--only a feeble-minded moron could be changed by the swill this book is. It has been a terrible chore to read this awful book. I shudder to think I have two more of this filthy series yet to read. I will be glad when this reading project is done. ( )

rabbit's a jerk. ( )