elpanek's review
5.0
The title implies that we will re-join Rabbit in a state of retirement, or possibly death, though when we start Rabbit at Rest, he's still semi-employed and not yet 60 years old. That choice to explore the gray zone between middle-age career-peak and elderly retirement makes this as interesting as a book about the transition to adulthood, a kind of coming-of-old-age.
What will happen to Rabbit? Is he capable of change? Those questions are part of what drew me back to this series, but the chief pleasure of reading it is in the descriptions of Rabbit's inner life. Other characters take center stage for a bit - his grown son Nelson, his stalwart wife Janice - and the fact that we're not seeing them entirely through Harry's eyes, as you would with a first-person novel, makes him easier to take. There are a few new additions to the cast of characters, and the change of scenery to a winter place in Florida provides enough variety to keep the series from feeling remotely stale. But for Harry, as for many others, the latter half of life is a kind of closing down, an inevitable turn inward.
Rabbit is still an unremarkable jerk, which makes the feat of making him so sympathetic and fascinating all the more remarkable. I kept thinking of Tony Soprano: laughably ignorant, infuriatingly cruel, but capable of profound reveries. Obviously, he's less angsty than Tony, a shortfall that is made up for by his high-strung son Nelson. How grating Harry's affability is to Nelson, but it's what kept me from wearying of the Rabbit novels - the way that Harry can blithely detach himself from the drama around him.
There's a richness of themes that builds up over the four books, particularly the last two, after the tragedy of Harry's early adulthood is out of the way. Cars are a recurring cultural sign post, showing the evolution of American sensibilities but also repositories of nostalgia and extensions of vulnerable bodies. It's Harry's body and its vulnerabilities that provide the primary drama this time, one that thankfully moves in unexpected directions.
All phases of an ordinary American adult life are described in this series, and in this phase, there are many extended descriptions worth savoring - a 4th of July parade, a grandfather/granddaughter outing at sea. But the one that stuck with me, the one I felt compelled to transcribe after reading, was a description of what it was like to stay in a condo alone as night fell, later in life, the empty rooms having "taken on the tension and menace of a living person who is choosing to remain motionless." Turning all of life - no matter how lonely or mundane - into something worth savoring is all you can hope for from a good book.
What will happen to Rabbit? Is he capable of change? Those questions are part of what drew me back to this series, but the chief pleasure of reading it is in the descriptions of Rabbit's inner life. Other characters take center stage for a bit - his grown son Nelson, his stalwart wife Janice - and the fact that we're not seeing them entirely through Harry's eyes, as you would with a first-person novel, makes him easier to take. There are a few new additions to the cast of characters, and the change of scenery to a winter place in Florida provides enough variety to keep the series from feeling remotely stale. But for Harry, as for many others, the latter half of life is a kind of closing down, an inevitable turn inward.
Rabbit is still an unremarkable jerk, which makes the feat of making him so sympathetic and fascinating all the more remarkable. I kept thinking of Tony Soprano: laughably ignorant, infuriatingly cruel, but capable of profound reveries. Obviously, he's less angsty than Tony, a shortfall that is made up for by his high-strung son Nelson. How grating Harry's affability is to Nelson, but it's what kept me from wearying of the Rabbit novels - the way that Harry can blithely detach himself from the drama around him.
There's a richness of themes that builds up over the four books, particularly the last two, after the tragedy of Harry's early adulthood is out of the way. Cars are a recurring cultural sign post, showing the evolution of American sensibilities but also repositories of nostalgia and extensions of vulnerable bodies. It's Harry's body and its vulnerabilities that provide the primary drama this time, one that thankfully moves in unexpected directions.
All phases of an ordinary American adult life are described in this series, and in this phase, there are many extended descriptions worth savoring - a 4th of July parade, a grandfather/granddaughter outing at sea. But the one that stuck with me, the one I felt compelled to transcribe after reading, was a description of what it was like to stay in a condo alone as night fell, later in life, the empty rooms having "taken on the tension and menace of a living person who is choosing to remain motionless." Turning all of life - no matter how lonely or mundane - into something worth savoring is all you can hope for from a good book.
mary412's review
3.0
After reading Rabbit is Rich for book group, I had to re-read this one. I remember being sad when I read this for the first time, thinking that I'd never encounter Rabbit again.
jzelman's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
harriet_toad_maradona's review against another edition
5.0
the five star rating is linked not to my first 1996 reading but to the [grand, illuminating] 2001 reread. when first I read _Rabbit at Rest_, I was 18, ignorant of Updike, bored and grossed out by contemporary literature (the thing itself and the class English 140/TR 230-345/somewhere on the second floor of Chambers Bldg). but somehow Virginia Smith managed to persuade arrogant me that, insofar as this Updike and/or Rabbit business was concerned, there was something maybe *I* was missing.
four-and-some years later, thousands of miles from University Park PA 16802, I remember and begin the experiment by checking out _Rabbit, Run_. and there in my little room in Oakland CA 94612, I read, one at a time and something like one per 60 days, the Rabbit novels. the experiment: do we actually grow in empathy over time, with age? of course I could cry for Septimus Smith or H.H. or Jake or Werther or whoever, but icky ordinary Harry Angstrom?! I did! I did cry; it worked, and all I had to do was read and reread. it's like an episode of How to Become a Better Person Without Doing Anything Difficult (not a real show)!
I will always have a very soft spot for Rabbit and for Updike himself (though not so soft that I feel obligated to finish any of his gazillion other novels).
four-and-some years later, thousands of miles from University Park PA 16802, I remember and begin the experiment by checking out _Rabbit, Run_. and there in my little room in Oakland CA 94612, I read, one at a time and something like one per 60 days, the Rabbit novels. the experiment: do we actually grow in empathy over time, with age? of course I could cry for Septimus Smith or H.H. or Jake or Werther or whoever, but icky ordinary Harry Angstrom?! I did! I did cry; it worked, and all I had to do was read and reread. it's like an episode of How to Become a Better Person Without Doing Anything Difficult (not a real show)!
I will always have a very soft spot for Rabbit and for Updike himself (though not so soft that I feel obligated to finish any of his gazillion other novels).
radioisasoundsalvation's review
4.0
I will never say that I enjoyed this series of novels, but the final installment in Rabbit's life made the series very rewarding. Updike's an amazing writer. He captures so many social dynamics; Mt. Judge and Brewer are true American towns, successfully fleshed out with real people. The first two novels were so focused on Rabbit Angstrom specifically that I felt his selfishness and ego were overdone; but through the eyes of his family and friends, so much more an active component of his life, the portrait of the man becomes a richer experience, full of the dynamics and complications that all relationships entail. Yes, Rabbit is probably the meanest, jerkiest dude in literature. Updike continues to let you into his protagonist's psyche without flinching away from any thought, fantasy, or misdeed. That's what makes these novels a rewarding experience; four decades of a guy's life, of American history.
lenmacrae's review
4.0
Despite possibly the most unlikable protagonist I've ever encountered, this is a remarkable book, and a fitting end to the story of Rabbit Angstrom.
crispymerola's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
An elegy in slow-motion. The last whimpering cry of a thirty-year effort to depict, in unsparing detail, the life of a character so despicable in his smallness, so heinous in his mediocrity, that one can't help but twist around in their disgust until it magically wraps itself into love. I love you, Rabbit! You crazy mother fucker!
Updike allows time to wield his pen - with every passing decade, he brings a new self to the page. I've watched the trickling specter of death become a gaping wound, and let it tear me in two. This book feels like dying.
And as Rabbit says, it isn't so bad.
Updike allows time to wield his pen - with every passing decade, he brings a new self to the page. I've watched the trickling specter of death become a gaping wound, and let it tear me in two. This book feels like dying.
And as Rabbit says, it isn't so bad.
katecurry's review against another edition
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0