LICKS OF LOVE. [Paperback]

John. Updike (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: NY: KNOPF. 2000 (2000)
• ISBN-10: 0795328729
• ISBN-13: 978-0795328725
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

More About the Author

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and since 1957 lived in Massachusetts. He was the father of four children and the author of more than fifty books, including collections of short stories, poems, essays, and criticism. His novels won the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal. A previous collection of essays, Hugging the Shore, received the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. John Updike died on January 27, 2009, at the age of 76.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rabbit is Back, February 27, 2001

By 

Paul McGrath (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel (Hardcover)

Tom Wolfe recently said of John Updike that he knew that there were 275 million people living in the United States, and that he didn't believe there was a one of them who was looking forward to a new John Updike novel. To this I would say he is only about half right. I would agree that news of the first half of this book, the short story collection, left me mostly unmoved. But I can guarantee you that I, along with dozens of other people I'm sure, was delighted to see yet another installment in the Rabbit series, and scooped it up eagerly.

It doesn't disappoint. Of course, everybody familiar with the series knows that Rabbit died a long time ago, but contained in here are all of the other familiar faces: Janice, now married to Ronnie Harrison; Nelson, separated; Pru; Billy Fosnacht; and Annabelle Byer, the mover and shaker of the plot this time around. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's presence, though, looms over all, figuratively, and eventually as we shall see, literally.

Yes, as the lion is noted for his ferocity, the elephant for his size, and the giraffe for his height, Rabbit is known for, well, what rabbits are known for. I don't believe I've ever seen this pointed out in any reviews of these books that I have read, and am at a loss to explain why. (I apologize if I have missed something.) Even Mr. Updike seems to be curious about this, throwing us a not so subtle hint in this one.

Think about it: in the first book he cheats on Janice, and indirectly causes the death of his daughter. In the second book, he is separated from Janice, but cheats on his girlfriend, and while gone she is killed in a fire. In the third one, he is prevented from consumating his lust (by Nelson, no less, hilariously), and nobody dies. But in the fourth one, after cheating on Janice yet again, and with Nelson's wife this time, he indirectly causes his own death. Yes, boys and girls, the age old theme: sex equals death. Or in this case, illicit sex equals death, sooner or later. Or maybe, everything eventually equals death.

But I am being simplistic. These books encompass way more than this; in fact, one could argue that these books encompass everything that is human about all of us. Yes, Rabbit's life can be read as a tawdry, melodramatic, almost tragic soap-opera, but to do so would be missing the point. These books are also slyly, wickedly funny. How ridiculous, we think. Look at these bumpkins, struggling to find happiness through self-gratification. But how tragic. And how sad. Because we are contained in here too. It is Updike's magnificent intelligence which allows us to see the pathos and humor in all of it.

Is Rabbit Everyman? No, he is not every man. But he is also not uncommon either. We all know people like him. The stumbling good guy, buffeted around by life, taking what comes his way without much thought or introspection or faith. He doesn't really love anybody and is not really sure how to. In Mr. Updike's hands, though, this thoroughly mundane person is fascinating, and probably the most fully-realized character in American literature. We have been following him, and the America he lives in, for four decades now. There is no doubt in my mind that several hundred years from now people will be studying these novels in order to get a complete and thorough picture of American culture in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Is it a pretty picture? No, not really. Is it accurate? Yes, to the degree that it captures the life of one individual--no more, no less--it is. At the end, Harry is in Florida, lost, feeling like he has been swimming underwater. His life has been a void.

This book, Rabbit Remembered, allows us to see his accomplishments, through those he left behind, and ends with the characteristic brilliance typical of the entire series. It is New Years Eve, the end of the century, the end of the millenium. Four well-dressed, clumsy, drug-addicted, divorced, molested, depressed, middle-aged youths--Nelson, Pru, Annabelle, and Billy--are going out for the evening. Janice looks at them, her children--Harry's children--and tears come to her eyes. She is moved, but incapable of understanding why.

It is Harry. He is the father of illegitimate Annabelle and legitimate Nelson, the one-time lover of Pru, his daughter-in-law, and the one-time lover of Billy's mother. This is his connection to them, and what, inexplicably, has moved Janice. These children are his legacy. The legacy of the Rabbit.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Updike offers up One More Rabbit for the Fans, May 4, 2005

By 

Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel, "Rabbit Remembered" (Paperback)

When future historians try to understand the Sexual Revolution of the latter twentieth century, they will probably find no more useful documents than the fiction of John Updike, whose obsession with sex, particularly the adulterous variety, is unparalleled in modern literature. In Updike's world, pick any four couples and you've got yourself seven adulterers and one weirdo - quite a different Pennsylvania from the one this reviewer lives in.

In this mixed volume of fiction, "The Women Who Got Away", "New York Girl", "Natural Color", the Bech story "His Oeuvre" and the surprising "Scene From the Fifties" all revolve around marital infidelity and the burgeoning sexual revolution. Updike's obsession with adultery leads one to suspect that the writer suffered from post-coital remorse, and tried to come to grips with his own indiscretions by implying that they are symptomatic of the culture, and so not really his fault. The stories invariably show how tawdry these encounters are, how irresponsible he recognizes them to be, and how paranoid the perpetrators become, all to convince someone (His family? His mistress? His readers? His Maker?) that it really wasn't all that much fun. "Let me off easy," he seems to be saying, "I've already suffered enough."

"Rabbit Remembered" is the real class of this collection, and a worthy capstone to the Rabbit series, but readers unfamiliar with the four novels preceding shouldn't expect to get much out of it. Recapitulations of the events from the prior novels are often pretty brief, giving the barest review of the facts and skipping all the emotional fallout. The focus is on the late Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's son Nelson, and the changes that take place in his life when his unbeknownst half-sister Annabelle shows up at his mother's house.

Fans of Updike's work will surely appreciate this one last entry into the Rabbit franchise, even if there isn't much else to recommend this volume. Those new to Updike should start anywhere but here; the adultery-go-round of the first dozen stories is sure to leave a bad taste in the mouths of most readers, and the redeeming qualities of "Remembered" will be wholly opaque to the uninitiated.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rabbit Rules!, November 14, 2000

By 

Eustacia Vye "Eusatcia Vye" (Encino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Licks of Love: Short Stories and a Sequel (Hardcover)

Licks of Love is worth buying just for the novella featuring our old favorite hero Rabbit Angstrom...however, in addition to Rabbit, this book contains marvelous short stories by the wonderful John Updike. There is a delcious story about a one night stand and a gorgeous one about cats! If you want to be touched by love and feel its power, buy this book, read this book and cherish this book. God bless John Updike!