This series is my In Search of Lost Time, goddamn you. ( )

This was a great book. Better then the first two. Mainly because it did end with you feeling sick to you stomach. Don't get me wrong I loved the first two books or else I wouldn't read the third one, but the ending to those would make others never read an Updike book ever again. This ending though is worth the read.

Probably the main reasons I love this book is the fact there was this entire father and son feud going on between Rabbit and Nelson. Threw out the book there is tension and you can help but feel sorry for Nelson having a bad father and also sorry for Rabbit for having a son who doesn't listen to his father. I find it sadly true that some fathers (like Rabbit) care more about their car than their own son.

If you want some questions from the first novel dealing with Ruth, this book answers them too. He is consistently thinking about Ruth what happened the the baby they had together. It's kind of odd at time he'd be thinning about Ruth and his bastard child, but at the same time you'd expect that from Rabbit.

Be warned if you pick up this book or any of the Rabbit books though. They are filled with sex and swears to the point it might make you not want to read the book. However, keep in mind that Updike probably did this for a reason. I believe he made Rabbit such a bigot and other characters dislikeable to show that they are just human. There's no hero you root for or villain you want destroyed in these books. You just observing live threw the eyes of a average American male. ( )

More of the same from Updike with two exceptions: less happens and there’s more graphic sex. Quite why this novel, of the three Rabbit novels so far, won the most awards including the Pulitzer is beyond me.

My conclusions that Rabbit and his ilk are a complete waste of human space were confirmed by this. How many people are there out there whose lives are of no benefit to anyone except themselves and to the detriment of everyone around them?

No one in this novel is capable of loving anyone around them or even aware that they lack the ability. Instead, they carry on with facade and distortion as if life really is all about their petty concerns.

Rabbit has grown fat, in more ways than one, on the proceeds of the Toyota showroom inherited from his now deceased father-in-law. He is estranged from his son, emotionally estranged from his wife, and still beset by fantasies of the sexual grass being greener.

Updike must have thought all women were simply objects. He describes all of them in terms of their bodily appearance and, as far as I can tell from these three novels, created Rabbit to somehow legitimise lust. Even when he does create a character who supposedly loves Rabbit, his expression of that is for her to take him away during a vacation swingers night and have him perform anal sex. How facile do you have to be for this to be what you consider an expression of love?

So, in conclusion, having read the first three books, while Updike can write great prose, he turned his skill to rendering lives that were entirely unworthy of our focus. Either there’s some genius irony there and that’s exactly the point, or these three books are equally unworthy. I think it actually may be both. ( )

The third novel in the Rabbit Angstrum series, Harry is middle aged, his son is away at college and he and Janice live with Janice’s mother. Harry is running Springer Motors and believes he is owner but really, he works for his mother-in-law and his wife. Harry has become obsessed with money. His son can’t make a decision and appears to be irresponsible (a lot like Harry) and he is also obsessed with the daughter he had with Ruth.
Rabbit is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1981. Of the three that I have read so far, I liked this the least and I like Harry the least in this book. There is way too much sex talk and thoughts on Harry’s part and the words used are offensive. What Updike does so well is capture time. In this book, the reader revisits the first oil shortage, Carter administration, eighties inflation. It just wasn’t a very interesting time as the previous book but still a walk down memory lane. Harry does redeem himself with the last sentences of the book when he is holding his granddaughter. ( )

I am on a mission to complete the Rabbit series , although I often do not like him.
Updike's books in this series are a mirror of the times.
Harry is an every man whose dreams, desires and foibles reflect those of the mainstream culture of the time. (So perhaps that is what I sometimes do not like!)
I find some of the sex scenes overly descriptive. Rabbit is obsessed.
Somehow, Updike keeps me interested in his fate, and surprises me with Rabbit's redeeming qualities. ( )