Rabbit Run (1960)
3.5 Stars out of 5
John Updike
325 pages
“And
after you're first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick
out of being second-rate.”
Rabbit Run
There is sometimes a problem in reading and reviewing a book
from an earlier era. If one goes far enough back in time, say the late 16th
century/early 17th century and Shakespeare, the language might
almost be a foreign tongue. Of course, the themes and poetic prose used by
Shakespeare make his work quite nearly timeless and equally obviously, worth the
effort. If one goes back a century before one was born, say to Austin in the early
19th century or Conrad at the end of the same century, the language
is now completely comprehensible, though perhaps a little archaic at times;
again, in the hands of an excellent author such as these two, the themes are
completely relatable. Move forward suddenly to the not quite near present, to books written in the world that you saw through
your near-adolescence eyes, but now read
as an adult, and what is your reaction? For me, it has been generally a
disappointment tinged with a sense of incredulity. Did we really live in the
same and world and time, this unnamed author and I? I had this reaction a year
or so ago when I finally got around to reading Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road”
(1957). I have had it again with John Updike’s, “Rabbit Run” (1960).
I chose to read “Rabbit Run” because in reviewing authors
and books I should have read long ago, but hadn’t, I discovered that Updike was
one of only three authors to have won a Pulitzer Prize for Literature two
times. (The other two were Booth Tarkington, an author yet to be discovered by
me, and my personal favorite author, William Faulkner.) Updike won both times
for books from a four book series he started with “Rabbit Run” when he was only
28. The books that won were for the third book in the series, “Rabbit is Rich”
(1982) and the concluding book, “Rabbit at Rest” (1990). He added a novella on
Rabbit in 2000, “Rabbit Remembered”. With so much critical praise for the last
two novels, I thought, I would start on the first book in the series, “Rabbit
Run”. In short, my reaction to “Rabbit Run” is that I will read the rest of the
books, but it won’t be for my reaction to “Rabbit Run”, it will be to seek what
the Pulitzer committee saw in the last two books. The first book is intriguing
but only for its examination of the protagonist’s self-centered view of the
world. There is little to learn from this book about human nature other than that
there are examples of humanity, I’d really rather not know. (See the quote at
the head of this review for a nice preview of why I detest Harry “Rabbit”
Angstrom.)
“Rabbit Run” begins innocently enough. Harry aka “Rabbit” (his
nickname from his days as a high school basketball star) walks a street at the
end of the day selling. Rabbit sells the “Magipeeler , a kitchen aid, to
housewives in the local supermarkets. He’s feeling a little down when sees a
basketball game in progress. The players stare at him with unfriendly looks.
Rabbit is undeterred and asks to join them in their game. He runs, he shoots
and, of course he dominates his over-matched opponents. They look at him now with
hate in their eyes. Rabbit could care less; he is the master of the basketball
court once again. It is only now revealed to the reader that Rabbit at age 26
(curiously roughly the same age as Updike when wrote the book) has just
defeated a group of 10 year olds. Rabbit doesn’t care in the least that he just
beat a group of children less than half his age. The only thing that matters to
him and his neurotically immature mind is that he is number 1 again. Nothing
else matters to this man-child.
Rabbit returns to the home he shares with his pregnant wife,
Janice. She is a former sales girl where Rabbit sells his “Magipeeler” and the daughter
of a locally successful car dealership owner. Janice and Rabbit also have a two
year old boy, Nelson. They live in Mount Judge PA. As this story proceeds, and
despite whatever negative feelings you might on occasion have for Janice, her
parental family (the Springers) , or even for her young son, I am convinced you
will for the most part feel only pity for all of them as they orbit the
self-regarding “sun” of Rabbit. He continues his journey of self-absorption as
soon as he walks in the door and sees Janice, his late term pregnant wife. His focus
on her will be centered around her physical and mental defects (as he would
term them); and even more telling, how these defects have hurt Rabbit’s self-esteem.
Somehow, being married to Janice has knocked him down from number 1 to number
2.
He will leave the house after an argument with the intention
of not returning. He will drive aimlessly (rather like his life in summary)
from Mount Judge to various sites to the south and then west of home. On this
journey, Updike will demonstrate for the reader why he is grouped amongst authors
in the “realist” tradition. A good example is given on Rabbit’s night time sojourn
where he listens to the car radio. The reader will be treated to a very long
list of the songs and advertisements that Rabbit hears as he drives along.
There is no connection to Rabbit’s life or to the geography he passes through,
this list (and it won’t be the last) is mindlessly detailed for the reader to
ponder. Is there significance to the song and ad list, or like’s Rabbit’s quite
pointless life (as he sees it) is there no meaning to the song list, let alone
to the details of the ads themselves – and you will get to read the entire
script from several ads.
After a night on the road, Rabbit will return to one of the
foci of his adolescent heroics – his basketball coach, Marty Tothero. Marty is
another class act. He still admires Rabbit, maybe not so much for his
personality as much as the reflected glory of Rabbit’s high school basketball
achievements under Marty as the coach. Could there be any two less mature
characters in all of literature, one entering adulthood, the other nearing
retirement? Marty will introduce Rabbit to a new victim of Rabbit’s arrested
development, Ruth Leonard. Ruth will see initially Rabbit as a source of
income, but in time will become at least partially enamored of him. Too bad for
Ruth, for in time, she will regret having ever met Rabbit, let alone fall in
love (in her own way) with him.
Rabbit’s misbehavior will not go unnoticed by the community
of Mount Judge. A new character will enter the story; Jack Eccles. Eccles is
the Episcopalian priest to the Springer family. By now, I think you won’t be
surprised to learn that Jack has issues, too. Like Rabbit, Jack is struggling
to find his place in life. He races about trying to save lost souls like
Rabbit, even as he leaves his wife and children to their own devices. Jack’s
wife Lucy will sway from hating Rabbit for diverting her husband from Lucy’s
attention to Lucy disingenuously flirting with Rabbit.
One last set of characters in the book are Rabbit’s parents
and his sister Miriam. Rabbit’s father is an ineffectual father and seems only
concerned with how Rabbit’s behavior is embarrassing to his sense of
parenthood. It goes without saying, Mr. Angstrom is as far out to sea as a
father as Rabbit, himself. But the crown jewel of the family is Rabbit’s mother.
She is shrewish to a degree rarely seen in literature. If she is even
moderately considerate of anyone, it is Rabbit. As one reads the book, it is
not in the least difficult to discern where Rabbit learned a sense of
self-importance, or even more importantly a sense that he has earned more than
what life has given him. And I do mean given him. Rabbit never thinks in terms
of truly earning anything. His basketball skills came naturally to him, and he
fully expects all else in life to come as effortlessly. This includes the love
of a wife and a mistress.
So, what is Updike trying to tell the reader? Are there
young men not long out of High School or College who excelled as jocks but find
themselves as “also ran’s” in the game of life? Is he trying to question middle
class, protestant values in 1960’s America?
Perhaps via Rabbit’s promiscuity, he intends “Rabbit Run” to anticipate
the coming sexual revolution that America experienced in the late 60’s. And
then with the flawed Episcopal priest, Jack, Updike would perhaps like to tweak
the nose of conventional religious hypocrisy. Perhaps, each of these themes is important
to an understanding of Rabbit, but I think the key is Rabbit’s aimlessness. He
is in own immature manner looking for some meaning in his life. He can see Jack
trying to find it via saving his parishioners. He can see variations of it in his
and Janice’s fathers and mothers, middle-aged people dedicated to their jobs or
their families or at least allegedly so. The problem for Rabbit is he doesn’t
really want a job, a wife, or a child; he wants to be free. How adult of him.
I simply cannot recommend this book. It may be well written
from the perspective of characterization and style, but its protagonist’s
journey of self-discovery is fatally flawed in that this protagonist believes
he is the center of the universe. Who cares about someone searching for meaning
when that person believes all is due to him and due to him with virtually no
effort on his part? I will continue the series. I want to get to the two books
that were awarded the Pulitzer, but beyond serving as a springboard to those
books and as an introduction to Updike’s narrative style, this was a very
disappointing book.
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