Rabbit Novels Vol. 1 [Paperback]

John Updike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2003

The first and second novels in John Updike’s acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books–now in one marvelous volume.

RABBIT, RUN

“Brilliant and poignant . . . By his compassion, clarity of insight, and crystal-bright prose, [Updike] makes Rabbit’s sorrow his and out own.”
–The Washington Post

“Precise, graceful, stunning, he is an athlete of words and images. He is also an impeccable observer of thoughts and feelings.”
–The Village Voice


RABBIT REDUX

“ ‘Great in love, in art, boldness, freedom, wisdom, kindness, exceedingly rich in intelligence, wit, imagination, and feeling–a great and beautiful thing . . .’ these hyperboles (quoted from a letter written long ago by Thomas Mann) come to mind after reading John Updike’s Rabbit Redux.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. . . . A masterpiece.”
–Time

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for John Updike

RABBIT RUN
“A lacerating story of loss and of seeking, written in prose that is charged with emotion but is always held under impeccable control.”
–Kansas City Star

“Updike’s punch is powerful.”
–Newsweek


RABBIT REDUX
“A superb performance, all grace and dazzle . . . A brilliant portrait of middle America.”
–Life

“A truly fine, dazzling, excellent novel in all it’s breadth and depth.”
–Miami Herald

From the Inside Flap

The first and second novels in John Updike?s acclaimed quartet of Rabbit books?now in one marvelous volume.

RABBIT, RUN

?Brilliant and poignant . . . By his compassion, clarity of insight, and crystal-bright prose, [Updike] makes Rabbit?s sorrow his and out own.?
?The Washington Post

?Precise, graceful, stunning, he is an athlete of words and images. He is also an impeccable observer of thoughts and feelings.?
?The Village Voice


RABBIT REDUX

? ?Great in love, in art, boldness, freedom, wisdom, kindness, exceedingly rich in intelligence, wit, imagination, and feeling?a great and beautiful thing . . .? these hyperboles (quoted from a letter written long ago by Thomas Mann) come to mind after reading John Updike?s Rabbit Redux.?
?The New York Times Book Review

?Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. . . . A masterpiece.?
?Time

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1ST edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345464567
• ISBN-13: 978-0345464569
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.3 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best edition for these novels, June 13, 2006

By 

John Leighton (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rabbit Novels Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Twenty years from now, the Rabbit novels will be one of a host of books read in college gender studies classes to represent the postwar alteration of American marriage and family. It is rather amazing to read of cocktail-swilling couples seeing society dropouts appear on the scene, and then adopting some of the more selfish behaviors for their own. Also, the frank depictions of male-female lives--the various restricting gender roles, is illuminating. I personally found it quite remarkable to read the depictions of life from the early '60s onward--people riding the bus, when divorce was still shocking and far more damaging, how the hippie movement filtered into the middle American lives and tempted men and women to move on.

These are classic American novels, capturing the mood and sentiment in the way only the best fiction can: so that it is all "made up" by the author, but feels realer than reality. These novels are models of realist fiction, my favorite kind.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good edition for reading, July 5, 2009

By 

Mark Town "realoldmusicman" (Pittsburgh USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rabbit Novels Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Just took this and the second volume on a beach vacation and consumed all four novels with eager gratefulness. I had read these first two novels when much younger - my take from later years is even more positive, although Updike's sexual obsession - and that is what it is - gets more tiresome more quickly to an older reader. To someone who has lived through the same times, these Rabbit novels are a gift, an illumination. These editions are far better than the one-volume Everyman edition, which is too heavy and can result in serious injury. Go for it. Read them quickly, in succession. You may be annoyed at times but the cumulative effect is to understand more about America, American decline (in particular note the Japanese Toyota executive's comments in Rabbit at Rest) and probably yourself.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America through the decades, April 25, 2008

By 

G. Jacobson (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rabbit Novels Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I've reread these novels multiple time; each rereading has garnered me more insight into the time in which it evolves. Though ultimately pointing toward the hollowness that directed societal evolution through these times, Updike really catches all/most of the themes of suburban America. Volume 2 has "Rabbit is Rich", my favorite.