[.ca] Rabbit Is Rich (ISBN 0394520874)

The Superlative Rabbit:
I once heard a learned friend say that 'Rabbit Is Rich' stands alongside Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and Kundera's 'The book of Laughter and Forgetting' as the three seminal works of the Postmodern Era. Now, me, I just a simple commodities trader, the way I would put it is that 'Rabbit Is Rich' is Updike's best. He portrays the ego, the cowardice, the greed, the racism, as well as the strength, charisma and force of character that are inherent to many Alpha Males waging war in the Free Market, whether it be cars or stocks or commodities, the result is the same, ABC: Always Be Closing...Updike hits our breed right on the nose, our Nietzschean love of power, and our true contempt for the politically correct simpering pussies who have no idea how to survive in the marketplace. Rabbit is a regular guy, a regular guy with flaws but not without his own brand of stubborn courage...and it is that hard-headed aspect, his failure to give up that makes him and this book the Richest of all.

Rabbit: The Next Generation:
In this third installment of the Rabbit series, circa 1979/1980, we find Harry ("Rabbit") Angstom confronted by inflation, gas shortages, the Carter Administration's crisis of confidence, and most importantly by his son, Nelson. Nelson, who is now in his 20's, desparately wants to work as a salesman in Rabbit's Toyota dealership, even though that would mean displacing the company's top salesman. Harry feels that Nelson lacks the necessary maturity and competence for the position and wants him to return to college in Ohio. To complicate matters, the dealership is now owned by Janice and by Rabbit's mother-in-law, who inherited the firm from Rabbit's late father-in-law. The women are on Nelson's side and, of course, gang up on Rabbit. These are only a very few of the many complications in this great novel. Updike further develops the Harry/Nelson father and son relationship that was begun in _Rabbit Redux_. Updike has an uncanny ability to write realistic dialogue. The reader is able to gets into the heart and head of Nelson, whose anguish is palpable. It is the anguish of a young man who desperately wants to break away from his family and the past, and to attain personal responsibility, while seriously questioning his readiness for independence. Nelson, thus, must not only struggle with his feelings about a very pregnant girlfriend who he feels it his responsibilty to marry and to support, but also with some very painful memories for which he severely blames his father. Mutual resentments felt by both the son AND the father are revealed. Both admit a fear that Nelson may be doomed to repeat the same mistakes made years earlier by Rabbit. The novel also realistically presents the various sexual insecurities of the average middle-aged male. Who else best represents the aging, average American male, but Harry Angstrom? Happily, Rabbit discovers much that is positive about himself in an interesting and sensitively portrayed (and unexpected) encounter with a friend's wife. I highly recommend _Rabbit Is Rich_ to everyone who truly appreciates excellent writing and rich characterizations.

a wordsmyth but no more:
I wonder what makes "Rabbit is Rich" so critically acclaimed. Who the hell is interested in an average American car-sales-man in his forties, decaying like a tooth somewhere in the midst of America, the worst place conceivable. True, Updike is an unsurpassed wordsmith, but I am totally indifferent concerning the plot. America has not very much redeeming features anyhow, except its literature, but this book is a all a yawn.

Updike at his best: Real life, compassionately portrayed:
As good as the first in the "Rabbit" series. "Rabbit Is Rich" is Updike at the peak of his powers, describing in rich, vivid, compassionate detail the feelings, observations, memories, and dreams of recognizable people in mainstream American situations. As in "Rabbit, Run," the sex scenes (and the sexual energy in general) are poignant and unforgettable. Through these characters, Updike offers us a portrait of life's restlessness and the pitfalls of growing older. Like "Rabbit, Run" (and unlike "Rabbit Redux") this novel can be read as a standalone and be rewarding.

And the future one day comes:
Sad is the day when a man realizes that he is getting old --this is the day when he also realizes that what he used to call future is his actual present. This is when some people think that you don't live one day more --but you have one day less. This is sad and depressive, but this is the tone that John Updike, one of the best American writers ever, chooses to conclude the third installment in his Rabbit quartet. Keeping up the same level of the two previous Rabbit novels, "Rabbit is Rich" was deservedly awarded with Pulitzer Prize, American Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Not bad for a novel about man who has a sort of Peter Pan syndrome and he's afraid of growing up --although this is not this clear stated in any novel. In the very beginning the narrative meditates on the fear of death, and from page one on, we can realize that there is no place to go but down. Rabbit, his family, friends and enemies are back more or less ten years after the events depicted in the previous book. Not only is he older, but also he is wiser and bitter. He's living with his mother in law, and running the car lot that his father in law left. His son Nelson is at college, but sooner will be back --and so will problems. In this novel, Nelson has a major role too. He is becoming sort of a Rabbit Jr. --his fears, mistakes, anxieties are more or less the same his father had. Generation after generation, people are still the same --we're the same kind of 'animals' after all. And Harry Rabbit Angstrom can't do much to change his son --that hates him because of Jill's death. Incapable of any kind of communication, the two can only drift apart, hoping that time can heal the pain. Updike keeps the detailed examination of the sexual moral of the middle class. After a close look at the 50's and 60's sexual conduct, the author turns his magnifying glass to couples in the late 70's. This was when marriages were suffering the consequences of the sexual revolution, and an enormous boredom is replacing the joy of the discovery of a new sexuality in the previous decade. These were also the time of high consumerism. Rabbit is obsessed with a magazine called "Consumer Reports". It seems that the whole country is in a time of prosperity and people can spend as much as they want --but it will have consequences in the end. It is not a fluke that Updike writes great prose. His text is full of wit and imagination --but what I like best is how accurate he can portray that society that is falling apart. His sharp dialogues are pitch perfect, and the cynicism is only a plus in the narrative. Like Charlie --Rabbit's coworker and friend, and his wife's ex-lover-- once said: "That was the good old days. These are the bad new days". And Rabbit doesn't seem to have a bright future ahead of him and his family --which, by the way, is a promise to another great novel, called "Rabbit at Rest". As, it turns out the future one day always comes.