Book Review: Rabbit at Rest, by John Updike
Published February 03, 2006
Along the way there are the usual delightful literary accoutrements from Updike. Once again I have to refer to his prose, as even his worst books have a quality burnished by his style. Like Nabokov, Updike has a lovely ear for surfeit detail, but in his own way, clear with a language invested in the American idiom. In that lyrical sense, Rabbit, with his compositely flawed sense of manhood and his good natured demagoguery is a Hemingway hero in a time where Hemingway heroes are obsolete to the point of being dangerous. (Side note: I like Hemingway, I just know his flaws) Rabbit's misogyny, which critics have harped on, is a tricky issue. There are books to hang him on in that department, (Witches of Eastwick), but this isn't one of them, and Updike has sided with his better angels on that subject the overwhelming majority of the time. And one shouldn't pin Updike, a poor kid from a Pennsylvania sticks who ended up being the most cosmopolitan American literary critic since William Dean Howells, translating Borges and backing writers as diverse as Alice Munro to Gayl Jones, to Rabbit, an all American schmuck who curses out women like a gangster rapper.
In June of this year, Updike will release Terrorist, his 22nd novel about a disillusioned 18-year-old boy who discovers radical Islam. It will be by far the most radical and the most controversial book Updike has ever written, but the subject, the tangled web woven from, to quote Greil Marcus, "that old, weird, America", is his bread and butter. His last novel might have flopped, but I'm betting he still has a grand slam in him. But even if he doesn't; Updike has done more than enough. His best work, and there's a lot of it, has given him an indelible place in our American letters. He is one of our literary masters and Rabbit at Rest is where he is at the peak of his powers.
- Book Review: Rabbit at Rest, by John Updike
- Published: February 03, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Literature and Fiction
- Writer: Robert Lashley
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Apologize for the oversite, but not the assertion. Rabbit talks about his wife Janice and other women like a gangster rapper, and he does so throughout all 4 books.
Great review, even if I wouldn't be quite as harsh on Rabbit as you are. I love this series and try re-reading it every few years to get something new out of it. Have you read the novella "Rabbit Remembered" he did a few years ago, a post-Rabbit coda? It's not essential but it's interesting reading.
I do think "Couples" was hugely controversial at the time, one of the more controversial books of the '60s really; it's too soon to tell if "Terrorist" will be in that league or not. Either way, it'll be worth looking at...
Great review, Robert -- brought back a lot of memories about this masterful narrative. Of the lot, I prefer Rabbit Redux, the one that I think most truly fits the description of "a Greek tragedy articulated through the downfall of a flawed nuclear family" -- and what a downfall it is. Janice flees for an affair with that Greek guy, and Rabbit and Nelson take in a lovechild and her Black Panther boyfriend, and the whole thing goes up in flames. I think of it as the great 1960s novel, even it was published in the early 70s-- it truly brought it all back home, all the strife of the time, etc. But I love all those books, and Cindy Murkett remains for me the great pin-up of 20th Century fiction.
excellent review, Robert. I admit I've never muck liked Updike's style, and I've tried and tried over the years to appreciate him. I'm going on a trip this week and you've convinced me to grab that ancient copy of Rabbit, Run that I've never gotten through and finish it.
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You have a much draker view of Rabbit than I do. How is he "brutally misogynist"? He is unfaithful, yes, but that in and of its self is not brutal misogyny.
Also, there's only one car dealership in the family, which his wife's father started. Rabbit ran it after the father-in-law died and then let Nelson take over. Nelson ran it into the ground in scams to get money for drugs. Rabbit and Janice were negligent in not supervising him more, as the Toyota official tells Rabbit when he pulls the franchise.