I’ve promised
myself not to fall too far behind on these anymore, so here’s a review of a
book that I just finished up on Monday night.
***
Rabbit, Run by John Updike explores a
young man’s struggle to cope with the banalities of suburban life in
mid-twentieth-century Pennsylvania. The novel follows Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom,
a kitchen device demonstrator and former high school basketball star, who lives
in a small apartment with his pregnant, alcoholic wife and two-year-old son.
Rabbit, who feels that the walls of his world are closing in on him, abandons
his responsibilities throughout the course of the novel.
The
story is very tight and focuses exclusively on a few months of Rabbit’s life,
during the time that he seeks to discover the thing that is missing in his
life. The story itself is not the most compelling, but Updike explores his
characters and themes with such depth that he is able to elevate it from the
mundane. It is not a happy tale, and Rabbit is not an easy character to relate
to. He is selfish; his actions are worthy of contempt. Though readers might not
empathize with the reasons behind Rabbit’s actions, Updike’s skill, at least,
enables readers to understand Rabbit’s motives.
Updike
uses the novel as a case study in which to explore relatable human themes, such
as religious faith, the nature of love and lust, and life ambitions. The role
of faith is played out in rich dialogues between Rabbit and a local Episcopalian
pastor, Reverend Eccles, who tries to bring Rabbit back into the fold.
Together, they pose many questions, but fail to reach many conclusions
regarding the nature of God. Updike does not use the exchanges to deliver moral
lessons or foist religion on his readers; rather, he uses these dialogues to
explore the human condition and the very nature of faith. Similarly, he uses
Rabbit’s actions to explore themes of love and lust, but never presents a moral
position through his narrator. Updike’s style is to present the facts of his
story to his readers, and let them draw their own conclusions, without leading
them one way or the other, but it is clear that Updike is also using his novel
to explore these themes for himself. The effect is that the reader embarks on their
own journey of discovery alongside Updike’s narrator.
Rabbit, Run is noteworthy for its beautiful use of language. Updike
writes the novel in the present tense, creating a sense, for the reader, that
they are experiencing the story’s events as they occur. As others have noted,
the use of the present tense also gives the novel a poetic quality. The novel’s
use of intense imagery brings the prose an even greater poetic quality.
In
terms of artistic quality, this is one of the best novels I’ve read in a long
time. The story, however, leaves something to be desired. Luckily, Updike does
not drag the novel out excessively. He tells his tale in the space needed to
tell it, and then brings the novel to a very fitting conclusion. This is certainly
not Updike’s best work—in the sense that it is not his most highly acclaimed—but
it should not be disregarded, and is certainly a modern American classic worth
reading. The novel is the first of four books about Rabbit Angstrom, and it is
the later novels that have received the most acclaim. I do plan on returning to
the series.
JCM
30 January 2014
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