Customer Reviews

Rabbit Novels Vol. 1

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Rabbit Run is a great American novel and the best part is Updike got better as time went on. It shows in Rabbit Redux. He writing is clearer and the story grabs you right away. The rebellious Harry becomes the sad, over-weight man at 36 going on 60. If someone loves to read a good book or is thinking about a career in writing they need to read these novels and see if they can even come close to Updike. If not, keep your day job!

I was extremely happy and the book was recieved in less than a week.I will positively deal with this seller again.

I have just finished reading this book so I thought I would write my review when it is still fresh in my mind. The reason I completed this book (two books in one) is that I am a bigger fan of John Updike than I am of this book. The two other books of his I read and reviewed I enjoyed enormously, "Terrorist" and "In the Beauty of the Lilies," this, not so much, in fact hardly at all.

Perhaps it is a tribute to John Updike's genius as a writer that he can change his style from these early beginnings to the books I enjoyed so much. The descriptions are there as vividly as ever, but the subject matter is depressingly boring. It was as if he used this "diary of a nobody" to exercise his skill at writing about and describing sex acts, genitalia, and various forms of eroticism, sex being the predominant theme in the stories. Sex of course had only just been invented in the sixties, so it was all the rage and very much in vogue to immerse oneself in an orgy of self indulgence. Just as today the fashion, (promoted by Clinton) is oral sex, in the sixties masturbation had just been given a name and young boys were told they would not go blind after all. As good as they were technically, I did not find the descriptions in the least bit stimulating, just boring in a kind of here-we-go-again kind of way.

Harry's life is sad, he is a sad pathetic creature surrounded by sad pathetic creatures, so now you know what you are in for when you read this book. This is not an uplifting story, but perhaps the next book, "Rabbit is Rich" may be better. It seems that "Rabbit is Rich is the book which won John Updike the most accolades.

I will not go into the details of Harry's life, other people have done that, it is very much kitchen sink stuff anyway; up's and down's, tragedies, loves and losses. The best and most exciting description comes in the second book "Rabbit Redux" when the lover of Harry's wife who is in bed with her at the time, has a heart attack. It starts on page 334 in this book and continues for about three pages. John Updike builds up the tension, interest and excitement with the skill with which he became famous.

I will read the next two books, simply because these books are written so far apart John Updike has had time to develop and improve his story telling and perhaps Harry, (and the author) may have better things in mind than sex 24hrs a day.

I bought this book for a book club I am in. After reading about 20 pages of it, I had to stop. I really did not enjoy reading this and felt I could use my time to do just about anything else, including cleaning the bathroom, and get more out of it. This is unusual for me as I usually love anything I read. If you don't like depressing stories with unlikable characters, don't get this. On the one hand, I do not think reading only 20 pages gives me enough information to provide a fair review, however, only one person in our book group liked it.