Rating: 
Summary: An archeology of the American century
Review: For anyone who has yet to discover these extraordinary, sad. poignant, hilarious novels about the lives of middle class Americans in suburbia, I have this to say: I envy you. These four novels, each written a different decade (50s, 60s, 70s, 80s) do more than capture the spirit of their era. They mark the changes in our neighborhoods, politics, entertainment and sports. At the center is Harry Angstrom, a high school basketball star who never finds his niche in life. Harry is selfish, insensitive, yet also heart-breakingly sincere and a kind of protypical American romantic. These books also are quite [nice] and have some of the best descriptions of sex I have read. And people have this picture of Updike as some boring WASP writer. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new here...just run of the mill genius
Review: I don't want to waste anyone's time by saying the bleeding obvious. Updike is America's greatest living author and if you don't know why, you haven't been reading his work. These four novels are as good a place to begin as any. Then YOU can write the scintilating review I was about to write here.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new here...just run of the mill genius
Review: I don't want to waste anyone's time by saying the bleeding obvious. Updike is America's greatest living author and if you don't know why, you haven't been reading his work. These four novels are as good a place to begin as any. Then YOU can write the scintilating review I was about to write here.
Rating:
Summary: Not So Much a Review, More a "Thank You"
Review: I read the first Rabbit book as a student in 1969...in common with many readers I grew up (or at least grew older) along with Harry Angstrom, going through the decades with him in Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and finally Rabbit at Rest. Like Rabbit I've done my fair share of running, of trying to cope with getting older, families, jobs, expectations and exasperations. In many ways he's not a likeable character, but I've always found him kind of comforting. Maybe it's just the thought of someone making a bigger mess of things than I've done. Nelson and Janice are the ones I feel upset for - they seem to me to be the real victims of Rabbit's genuine inability to be anything more than he is. Updike's writing is just masterful; whether dealing with potential or actual tragedy (small-scale, but tragedy no less) or just with the everyday ups and downs of this 20th Century everyman's life, he conjures up images so real they would surely be dimished by any movie that was made of these books. Each book is a landmark in itself; together in this collection they constitute one of the most important bodies of work in contemporary fiction. Even if that were not the case, I would still strongly recommend the Rabbit novels to anyone for the sheer enjoyment that comes from reading them.
Rating:
Summary: Near top of all time favorites
Review: It's been awhile but Rabbit series is among my all time favorites together with Wouk's Caine, Winds and War. Absolutely brilliant. Tried a couple of Updike's other novels but didn't get very far.
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece from one of America's most gifted writers
Review: Mr. Updike pulls no punches in this life-story of his not so enviable "protaganist" Rabbit Angstrom. The blemished and bruised soft white underbellies of the characters and the fading American town in which they live are exposed with seemingly effortless skill. Updike endows his readers with a feeling of voyeuristic privilege: you are given a front-row view into the lives of an American family trying to follow the American dream, but who fall into the same cracks and make the same mistakes that we all have seen or sensed. You feel as if you want to lean forward and whisper into Rabbit's ear, "No, don't do that, really, you don't want to do that," but, alas, you are left to follow the topsy-turvy path he carves through his life, from the Pennsylvania of his youth to the Florida of senior-citizenship. Almost a tribute to the average American Joe, Updike asks us to look upon the extraordinay commonness of the people about which he writes, and almost dares us to feel superior to them. And in the end, we can't, because the trevails that befall them are the same ones we've all experienced at one time or another. Updike weaves these common experiences into a rich and poignent, if not uplifting, tapestry.
Rating:
Summary: A true masterpiece from one of America's most gifted writers
Review: Mr. Updike pulls no punches in this life-story of his not so enviable "protaganist" Rabbit Angstrom. The blemished and bruised soft white underbellies of the characters and the fading American town in which they live are exposed with seemingly effortless skill.
Updike endows his readers with a feeling of voyeuristic privilege: you are given a front-row view into the lives of an American family trying to follow the American dream, but who fall into the same cracks and make the same mistakes that we all have seen or sensed. You feel as if you want to lean forward and whisper into Rabbit's ear, "No, don't do that, really, you don't want to do that," but, alas, you are left to follow the topsy-turvy path he carves through his life, from the Pennsylvania of his youth to the Florida of senior-citizenship.
Almost a tribute to the average American Joe, Updike asks us to look upon the extraordinay commonness of the people about which he writes, and almost dares us to feel superior to them. And in the end, we can't, because the trevails that befall them are the same ones we've all experienced at one time or another. Updike weaves these common experiences into a rich and poignent, if not uplifting, tapestry.
Rating:
Summary: Eminem's 8 Mile
Review: Not a review, more an interesting aside. Eminem's new film 8 Mile is strewn with references to this book, from the main character's situation in life to more mundane things like his name, which is of course, Rabbit.
Rating:
Summary: Eminem's 8 Mile
Review: Not a review, more an interesting aside. Eminem's new film 8 Mile is strewn with references to this book, from the main character's situation in life to more mundane things like his name, which is of course, Rabbit.
Rating:
Summary: one-line summary???
Review: Nothing comes close in the annals of modern literature to the Rabbit series. This is the book everyone should own. Well, every biting narcisist with no particular views, and with a major messianic complex. So, 99% of the population should own this book. There are SO many levels in this maelstrom of contemporary American culture, subculture, conture-culture, and pop culture. To find out more about the books, read the individual reviews, but bear in mind this is THE definitive edition, with an enlightening essay that works as an overture to the grand epic, along with the insertion of several passages editited from earlier volumes. BUY THIS BOOK, if you're ready. This is the closest any prose really gets to art. More relevant than ever, Rabbit will change your way of thinking about life. Two weeks after reading this book, if you wake up shaking, sweating from fear and paranoia over whats happened to your life over the years, you have Mr. Updike to thank. Then take! a breath, and dive back into the book on a second-wind. Be prepaed to laugh, cry, and most importantly meditate on the impact of this book; be ready to experience the Life and Times of Mr. Rabbit Angstrom, a character as deep as life itself.
|
