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Liked It “As with the previous two in the series, this book rocks. Kudos to Updike.... AGAIN!” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “This didn't puit me off as much as some of his books, but it didn't really leave an impression on me, either.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“As with the previous two in the series, this book rocks. Kudos to Updike.... AGAIN!”
Brian w wrote this review Saturday, August 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I loved the writing. Updike observes in wonderful detail... for example when Harry and Janice try to tell Ma Springer they are moving into their own house. Updike does a short but powerful bit on the skin of Ma Springer's face. I also love that each of these books are a sort of time capsule of American life. Harry... well I'm still not sure what I think of him.”
Chris A wrote this review Saturday, August 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This didn't puit me off as much as some of his books, but it didn't really leave an impression on me, either.”
Eileen M wrote this review Tuesday, July 21 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“" and each husband took the hand of a wife not his own." = WIFE SWAPPING !
Mar W wrote this review Friday, July 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Cool. So that's the protocol, huh? You begin by just grabbing another chick's hand? Easy enough. And then what? Updike doesn't say. You know I was actually surprised by that scene, because the next we read, it's morning and they're all waking up and such. ----that I remember. Not to worry, there was a lot of other racy and really raunchy stuff---body fluids etc.... or what Updike refers to as "effluvia"---love that !
You know, out of all the Rabbit Books, I think this was my least favorite. I think it was the question of what is meant by "rich". To me, rich means living in a palace with servants and such. For Harry Angstrom, rich is simply owning a Toyota dealership. Although, I guess Updike doesn't feel "rich" always means money. i guess you can be rich in thoughts. rich in family. Rich in bodily fluids ? LOL
I liked the Donna Summer stuff. Harry is into music, and around this time----the story takes place in 1979 ??? Disco is in.
What makes the Rabbit series for me is the little things...these little details that go from book to book: The Barca-lounger, the green glass egg, the beech trees. The "Springer Hands"...Janice's side of the family had little hands, and the Angstrom's were larger boned ? Updike, himself, always had large hands with long fingers. I got a look at his hands when he signed my copy of "Widows In Eastwick" last November !”“This is my favorite so far in the Rabbit series. Excellent book!”
Kate F wrote this review Wednesday, July 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This book,as with all of the rabbit novels, was an intriguing portrayal of american life, the writing does get stagnant at times. I would recommend trying to get through this though and try reading them sometimes.”
Matt E wrote this review Wednesday, July 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The main character - what a douche. He's not very likeable and neither is his wife. However, somehow I was completely absorbed into his shallow little life as a middle-aged man. I really couldn't get into any other books by John Updike because I can't really relate to the characters but this book had me hooked. I must confess. There is plenty of adult content just to let readers know.”
Woman Lost in the Kingdom of the Mind wrote this review Tuesday, January 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Nobody describes humanity quite like John Updike. Like a scab picked clean--satisfying, and flinchingly thorough.
scheruvi wrote this review Thursday, October 4 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Consider the following passage:
"A little touch of the hooker about her looks. The way her soft body wants to spill from these small clothes, the faded denim shorts and purple Paisley halter. The shining faintly freckled flesh of her shoulders and top arms and the busy wanton abundance of her browny-red many-colored hair, carelessly bundled...She has blue eyes in deep sockets and the silence of a girl from the country used to letting men talk while she holds a sweet-and-sour secret in her mouth, sucking it. An incongruous disco touch in her shoes, with their high cork heels and ankle straps. Pink toes, painted nails..He feels she wants to hide from him, but is too big and white, too suddenly womanly, too nearly naked. Her shoes accent the length of her legs; she is taller than average, and not quite fat, though tending towards chunky, especially around the chest. Her upper lip closes over the lower with a puffy bruised look. She is bruisable..."
Rabbit Angstrom, the protagonist of the novel, is describing a woman he fetishistic-ally believes might be his daughter. Greedily incestuous, the passage sets the tone for all of Rabbit's female encounters--lecherous and prurient. Not surprisingly, the often-described sex in the novel is insistent, claustrophobic and pornographic. There's a reoccurring, and strange obsession with female toes. What to make of all this?
On the one hand, Updike is a glorious writer. He describes every physicality to such a minute detail that you are left with searing images branded to your brain...which is unfortunately gross. How do you get past the stunningly vivid descriptions of oral sex, sexual urination, and every time Rabbit comes across a beautiful woman the reader’s gag reflex is triggered. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little bit...but it's still *eeww*
Set in the late 1970s, the book tells the story of Rabbit Angstrom, a successful car salesman, who is…well…rich. We meet his needy wife, and a sullen, vapid son, his country club friends, and the economic swirl of his father-in-law's car lot that he has inherited. The characters in Rabbit is Rich resemble John Updike’s Couples in more ways than one—the careless, seemingly banal marital affairs that they have, the greedy selfishness, and half-loathing vision of the upper, white class American social milieu. But unlike Couples, Rabbit is Rich is not pointless and bored with itself. Instead Updike fleshes out key relationships with finesse and style.
There is the ambiguity, shot with loathing between Rabbit and his son which includes Rabbit’s slimy, yet oddly endearing attempts at redemption. When Rabbit clumsily offers his son an “out” from an ill-advised marriage to a pregnant girlfriend, it is clear that Rabbit's predilection to run from his problems are thoughtlessly being passed on to his son.
There’s a whole “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” message that Updike manages to add interesting dimensions to and eek out beyond the cliché. There is also the strange apathy that he has for his dead daughter coupled with an unhealthy fascination with another daughter that he might or might not have.
I didn't realize Rabbit is Rich was the third installment in a series. So I spent much of the book thinking Updike was being uncharacteristically coy with Rabbit's lurid past. We get hints and pieces of his past, which the reader can comfortably piece together without deterring from present story. Once you get past long passages on Rabbit's rambling thoughts, and a needlessly informative sections on cars, this is a pretty good book to bury yourself into for a couple of hours.”
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