Reviews

• Brilliant -- But Not Always Enjoyable

  As a woman a couple of generations younger than Updike, Roth, et al, I've always avoided the Big Boys, assuming (with some paranoia) that they intended to exclude me from their audience. Having recently been astonished by Roth's Everyman, I decided to give Updike a try, and started with the last novel in his famous quartet. There is no denying that this is a brilliant novel. Updike places his reader squarely in the head of Rabbit Angstrom, and there is not a single false note in the book. And the clarity of the prose is breathtaking -- you get the sense that every word was perfectly chosen to communicate precisely what Updike wanted to communicate. But, for this reader at least, the first 300 pages or so often filled me with an uncomfortable icky-ness. I could understand Rabbit, but I didn't identify with him. In fact, the character I identified most with was his ten year old granddaughter. Rabbit's causal references to his wife-swapping in the Carribean thirty years ago, or to the tingle in his a--hole caused by his heart medication, made me squirm. I just didn't want to know that much about Dear Old Dad, or Grandpa, or whatever. The last 100 pages, however, were so luminous, so pure, that the squirmy-icky feeling fell away, and the distance I felt from the character receeded. I suddenly understood all of those facile book jacket accollades -- "Crowning Achievement" and "Great American Novel" and the rest. I'd been converted, despite all my resistance. There are some other things about the book that are simply amazing. The book was set in 1989 and published in 1990, and Updike captures that time with unbelievable precision. Throughout the book, however, I had a strong feeling that Updike was foreshadowing 9/11 -- it's almost as if Rabbit could see it coming. In fact, if this book had been written after 9/11 instead of twelve years before, I almost would have found the foreshadowing a little too heavy handed. I'd love to ask Updike about that -- or, more precisely, I'd love to listen in on someone else's conversation with Updike on that subject, because, quite frankly, in his brilliance and judgmentalism and dismissiveness toward women, he still scares me.

• It’s so hard to say good-bye Rabbit

  The fourth Rabbit book in Updike’s series and I wish there was a fifth and sixth and many more. This was close to my favourite but maybe the third was slightly better. The wonderful prose is sustained in this final part and the story line seems expected but at the same time unknown. I found that I was impatient to but regretted that it brought me closer to the last page. Whether you come to love or hate the main character, or the others, you feel that you have come to know them.

• Huge, fantastic, novel

  Describing Rabbit's experiences of American life in the late 70's and early 80's, Updike treats us to a giant banquet of a book.(Actually a series of books: I read Rabbit is Rich and then this one, virtually together) Hundreds of pages full of sumptuously meticulous observations which convey so vividly the hero's inner narrative - all the details that in normal life remain undisclosed. Men like Rabbit don't tend to share a lot of their intimate emotions, but, in this glorious novel, they are expertly articulated for our exquisite delight. His irritations, insecurities, deceptions, doubts, preoccupations, perceptions, loves, lusts are all here. As are his likes & dislikes, threats to his ego & boosts to it, successes & failures, sources of pride & causes of worry, aspirations & disappointments, satisfactions & frustrations . Tensions, rivalries, habits, comforts. Secret longings, secret fears, secret memories. The subtle characteristics of his companions, the unique experiences their company brings. The environmental cues which surround him, some inspiring, some depressing, but most in between, mundane yet evocative. Rabbit is certainly rich - his life, like all our lives, is chock full of poignant moments, nuances and insights that we never normally express. We rely on great authors like Updike to reassure us how rich indeed we all are.

• Simply the best

  These four books are monumental in their structure encompassing and encapsulating America in its post-war evolution. They are also a microcosm of a man struggling with himself and his family. Quite majestic in its scope and yet sensitive in its observations of social and family situations. It is simply the best 'American novel' I know. Rabbit is in turn exasperating and endearing in the humanly fallible nature of his choices and reactions to the everyday challenges that family, politics and business throw at him. It is fascinating the way the book oscillates between a monumental and critical observation of the currents of American post-war politics and society and its interweaving with the personal trials and tribulations of an ordinary man and his attempts to make sense of it all. It's just a shame that John Updike killed him off at 55 - he had another decade in him and I would have loved to have seen how he dealt with the last decade of the millennium!

• Finally cooked in his own juices

  Another decade on and Harry `Rabbit' Angstrom is well into his middle-age. He's 56, overweight, and still living the American dream. He splits his time between the old home town in Pennsylvania and his condo in Florida. All should be well, but his cokehead son is running the family business into the ground and Harry is eating himself to death. As flawed and human as ever Harry is still struggling to balance his conflicting impulses. He's the product of an excessive USA, and consumes with gusto. His opinions are still modelled by the media and corporate American mores. Selfishness and lechery are still getting the better of him. And his health is suffering badly from his indulgences. But Harry is incapable of moderating his behaviour. He can't even resist his own uncertain daughter-in-law; with predictable consequences. And Rabbit is tired. He's swiftly wearing out. Finally he decides that maybe enough is enough. So long, Rabbit. I, for one, shall miss you.

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