Rabbit, Run by John Updike

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"The clangour of the body shop comes up softly. Its noise comforts him, tells him he is hidden and safe, that while he hides men are busy nailing the world down, and toward the disembodied sounds his heart makes in darkness a motion of love."

John Updike's Rabbit, Run" (1960), considered a classic of American literature of the mid-twentieth century, has enjoyed wide popularity among readers for over 50 years and the author has published four sequels. It is embarrassing to admit that it is the first novel by Mr. Updike that I have read and even more so that I do not find it remarkable.

The outline of plot is well known. Henry 'Rabbit' Angstrom is a 26-year-old salesman who used to be a high-school basketball star. We meet Rabbit as he watches kids playing basketball. He joins the game and yes, he is still very good. But his marriage to Janice, who is pregnant again, is deteriorating and he loathes his wife both physically and emotionally. He runs away from home driving his car far from the town in an illusion of freedom. He moves in with Ruth, for whom the affair with Rabbit is certainly not the first. He also befriends Reverend Eccles who attempts to straighten Rabbit's ways. Then Janice is in labor and... The story may indeed be interesting for readers who care about the plot.

Alas I can barely stand the author's logorrhea, the flood of words of which much less than half would be enough. The verbosity is particularly disastrous in the sex episode with Ruth: the literalness and sheer physicality may make some readers renounce sex forever. The author's tendency of going on tangents is also infuriating.

On the positive side, there are some beautiful passages in the novel: I love Ruth's second "stream of consciousness monologue" (beginning on page 156 in the Penguin paperback). When focused and economical with words Mr. Updike is indeed a master of prose and his literary technique is flawless. Perhaps we have a case of an author who is unable to delete the words he liked writing so much?

Another strong feature of the novel is the portrayal of the late Fifties. When reading the book I almost felt I recognized these times even though I lived then in a completely different environment, geographically and socio-culturally.

Despite the author's loquacity and love of tangents this is still a serious novel. Literary critics will offer various interpretations based on socio-economic, cultural, or psychological analysis. Rabbit is a boy thrown into an adult world, mentally and emotionally a teenager: a pregnant wife, a two-year-old son, and a job are responsibilities that he is unable to handle. The only thing he does well is running. So he runs. Always away from something.

People say that high-school and college sports form students' characters. I think that sports, with the emphasis on winning, offer an insufficient support structure for people who outgrow it. I am afraid there are thousands and thousands of twenty- or maybe even thirty-something teenager boys out there, trying to cope with actual life, when the crutch of sports is taken away from them. Winning or losing are hardly applicable when one is an adult.

Two and three quarter stars.



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