Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, the protagonist of John Updike’s fourth and final book about him, has a Florida condo, a second granddaughter, and a damaged, overworked heart. Nelson, his son, is acting strangely; Pru, his daughter-in-law, is giving him conflicting signals; and Janice, his wife, decides to go back to work in her forties. In 1989, as Reagan’s debt-ridden, AIDS-riddled America gave way to that of the first George Bush, Rabbit traversed the desolate landscape of late middle age in search of reasons to live and chances to reconcile with a mercilessly accumulating past.
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
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The fourth and last book of John Updike’s tetralogy, Rabbit at Rest, has Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom as its main character. This book comes after Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, and Rabbit is Rich, which chronicle Angstrom’s life in his Pennsylvania hometown of Mt. Judge, close to Brewster. When we last saw Rabbit at the end of Rabbit is Rich, he had successfully established himself as the owner and manager of a Toyota dealership in Brewster, thanks to his wife Janice. He is a pillar of the community and a member of the country club. He is going through some midlife difficulties, mostly because of his college-age, ne’er-do-well Nelson.
About ten years later, Angstrom is semi-retired and spending the winters in Florida with his wife Janice while Nelson manages the family dealership, as seen in Rabbit at Rest.
The setting is the late 1980s, George H.W. Bush is in office as president, and cocaine is the preferred drug. The majority of the plot revolves around Rabbit’s troubled relationship with his son and the inevitable conflict that arises between him, his wife, and his daughter-in-law as the prodigal son gradually obliterates the family history. Other plot lines involve Rabbit’s deteriorating health and his interactions with his grandchildren.
However, it must be emphasized that Updike occasionally seems to fly off on wild screeds of florid, nearly nonsensical prose that leave the reader merely rolling his eyes. While much of the writing is amusing and exceptionally well done, this must be recognized. In fact, compared to the previous three instalments, I found this unpleasant feature to be far more prevalent in this one. I lost track of how many times Updike described the tastes and odours of female body parts at varying arousal levels.
However, all of the characters—even some of the less important ones—are brilliantly depicted and developed throughout the narrative. Overall, this is an intriguing look at life in the late 1980s as seen through the eyes of a middle-class Pennsylvanian.
In actuality, each of the four parts serves as a detailed examination of American society, and when combined, they provide a realistic picture of American life and cultural norms from the late 1950s through the 1990s. As a result, the show is really educational, a lot of fun, and for someone of my generation, extremely reflecting.
