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A review by forgottensecret
Rabbit Redux by John Updike
4.0
'Thirty-six years old and he knows less than when he started. With the difference that now he knows how little he’ll always know.'
We first meet Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom in John Updike's 1960 'Rabbit, Run'. He was a 26-year-old former high school basketball star married to his high school sweetheart, Janice. They had a 2-year-old son, Nelson, and Janice was expecting. Unsuited to the monotony of middle class life, Rabbit ran off with Ruth Leonard, a part-time prostitute. As his baby is born, and Rabbit bears perceived indiscretions of Ruth, he returns home. Following a further marital mishap, Janice accidentally drowns their baby. The book ends with Rabbit running away from the funeral.
'Rabbit, Redux' was written 11 years later in 1971. Harry is now 36, and Updike manages to believably mature the character. He still retains some of his mid 20s characteristics, but in raising his now 12-year-old son, we see that Harry has developed a sense of responsibility absent ten years ago. The book's momentum begins when Janice leaves Harry for a Greek man named Charlie Stavros. Harry subsequently establishes a lodging of him, Nelson, an African American Vietnman vet Skeeter with drug tendencies, and a wealthy teenage runaway from Connecticut, Jill. The house grows into a middle class incarnation of the 'Summer of Love'. The adults do drugs, drink, have sex and discuss the issues of the 60s. Surprisingly, Harry is open to the messianic outpourings of Skeeter, genuinely interested in reading passages out of 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' and other literature which Skeeter had brought to the home. My favourite character was Jill. For each of Nelson, Skeeter and Harry she represented something different, and I'm sure that her fate will reverberate through the rest of the series.
The most tearing scene is when Jill, high on heroin, dies in a fire set by conservative neighbours of Harry. The novel ends with Janice and Harry reconciling, with the now-experienced Janice and the less worldly Harry checked into a motel room, settling into a new dynamic.
Ostensibly, the plots of both 'Rabbit, Run' and 'Rabbit, Redux' are simple. But Updike's genius is in his lyrical writing, dialogue and gift for developing believable characters. It is no surprise after reading the first two books of the 'Rabbit' series that Updike is only one of four authors to win the Pulitzer more than once. The praise as being one of America's greatest fiction writers is justified.
We first meet Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom in John Updike's 1960 'Rabbit, Run'. He was a 26-year-old former high school basketball star married to his high school sweetheart, Janice. They had a 2-year-old son, Nelson, and Janice was expecting. Unsuited to the monotony of middle class life, Rabbit ran off with Ruth Leonard, a part-time prostitute. As his baby is born, and Rabbit bears perceived indiscretions of Ruth, he returns home. Following a further marital mishap, Janice accidentally drowns their baby. The book ends with Rabbit running away from the funeral.
'Rabbit, Redux' was written 11 years later in 1971. Harry is now 36, and Updike manages to believably mature the character. He still retains some of his mid 20s characteristics, but in raising his now 12-year-old son, we see that Harry has developed a sense of responsibility absent ten years ago. The book's momentum begins when Janice leaves Harry for a Greek man named Charlie Stavros. Harry subsequently establishes a lodging of him, Nelson, an African American Vietnman vet Skeeter with drug tendencies, and a wealthy teenage runaway from Connecticut, Jill. The house grows into a middle class incarnation of the 'Summer of Love'. The adults do drugs, drink, have sex and discuss the issues of the 60s. Surprisingly, Harry is open to the messianic outpourings of Skeeter, genuinely interested in reading passages out of 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' and other literature which Skeeter had brought to the home. My favourite character was Jill. For each of Nelson, Skeeter and Harry she represented something different, and I'm sure that her fate will reverberate through the rest of the series.
The most tearing scene is when Jill, high on heroin, dies in a fire set by conservative neighbours of Harry. The novel ends with Janice and Harry reconciling, with the now-experienced Janice and the less worldly Harry checked into a motel room, settling into a new dynamic.
Ostensibly, the plots of both 'Rabbit, Run' and 'Rabbit, Redux' are simple. But Updike's genius is in his lyrical writing, dialogue and gift for developing believable characters. It is no surprise after reading the first two books of the 'Rabbit' series that Updike is only one of four authors to win the Pulitzer more than once. The praise as being one of America's greatest fiction writers is justified.