Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Rabbit, Run (original 1960; edition 1996)by John Updike
Work InformationRabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
» 36 more 20th Century Literature (378) Top Five Books of 2015 (519) Top Five Books of 2023 (620) A Novel Cure (234) Favourite Books (1,255) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (323) Books Read in 2023 (4,539) The Greatest Books (84) The American Experience (115) Elegant Prose (78) To Read (486) Books about sports (60) Lucy's Long List (23) to get (173) Unread books (577) Five star books (1,530) Great American Novels (146) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The writing is undoubtedly very sophisticated - perhaps overly mannered - and the subject - a failing marriage - was gloomy. My first Updike - not my last, but I won't rush to read the next one. ( ) I found this a slightly frustrating book because a bit like a second-rate school band, although it occasionally threatened to become something beautiful, at each chance it failed to hold the note. The two main problems are a protagonist who is hard to relate to, and the unhelpful passage of years. I guess the author can only be blamed for the former, but it's a big problem. Rabbit Angstrom's motivations are never clear or interesting, and he never confronts his problems with any kind of energy or intellect. His obvious over-attachment to his successful school days quickly becomes annoying, as he is totally unable to even acknowledge it and begin the path toward building a life. I guess, in a way, this might relate to the fact that the book hasn't dated well. There was a time when the mere suggestions that the American Dream wasn't quite enough for some people was heretical enough to gain an author a reputation as a literary figure. However, time has provided much sharper critiques of the American Dream, and revealed that even in the early sixties more insight could be found in the work of, for instance, the Beats or Richard Yates than in this novel. However, the novel is well written, with a confident style and some beautiful observations, such as in this passage, which refers to Rabbit revisiting the streets he grew up in, "The houses, many of them no longer lived in by the people whose faces he all knew, are like the houses in a town you see from the train, their brick faces stern in posing the riddle, Why does anyone live here?" It is also occasionally overwritten, particularly in the breathless passages that try to emulate a stream of consciousness. Overall, it's promising enough to make me want to read more by Updike, considering his reputation, but not quite my cup of tea in the end. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Series"Rabbit" Series (1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesAndanzas (128) Colecção Século XX (74) Delfinserien (183) Európa Zsebkönyvek (189) Penguin Book (2097) — 2 more rororo (15398) Is contained inHas the adaptationHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:??A lacerating story of loss and of seeking, written in prose that is charged with emotion but is always held under impeccable control.???Kansas City Star Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his??or any other??generation. Its hero is Harry ??Rabbit? Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty??even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as strai No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin Australia2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia. Editions: 0141187832, 0141037520 |