Series
Publication
Fawcett (1982), Edition: Reissue, 448 pages
Original publication date
1981
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — 1982)
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 1982)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — Fiction — 1981)
Notable Books List (1981)
Description
The hero of John Updike's Rabbit, Run (1960), ten years after the hectic events described in Rabbit Redux (1971), has come to enjoy considerable prosperity as Chief Sales Representative of Springer Motors, a Toyota agency in Brewer, Pennsylvania. The time is 1979: Skylab is falling, gas lines are lengthening, the President collapses while running in a marathon, and double-digit inflation coincides with a deflation of national confidence. Nevertheless, Harry Angstrom feels in good shape, ready to enjoy life at last -- until his son, Nelson, returns from the West, and the image of an old love pays a visit to his lot. New characters and old populate these scenes from Rabbit's middle age, as he continues to pursue, in his erratic fashion, the rainbow of happiness.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member AshRyan
Less fascinatingly horrible than Rabbit, Run, and not even as just plain horrible as Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich is simply rather dull. At first, I wanted to find out what was going to happen to these characters out of a sort of morbid curiosity, like watching a train wreck...but as the series
The entire book seems to be building up to Rabbit's son Nelson having an affair with a girl who he doesn't know might be his half-sister, Rabbit's illegitimate daughter from his own affair back in Rabbit, Run. And then, it simply doesn't happen (and the book leaves unresolved whether she is in fact Rabbit's daughter or not). And it's not just that these were the characters' perceptions that Updike was reporting and they turned out to be misapprehensions...during the scenes between Nelson and the girl, they know nothing about what's going on. So basically, Updike is just screwing with us. On the one hand, it's kind of a relief that he doesn't go there, that he draws the line at incest (though he doesn't stick at much else, including wife-swapping and golden showers). But since he was making us think it anyway, he might as well have gone there, and not to do so is artistically dishonest. It's the same kind of stunt hacks like Dan Brown pull...and yet, Updike wins a Pulitzer for it (though I can't say I'm surprised).
Updike quotes from Babbitt in the epigraph, but he is no Sinclair Lewis. My recommendation is, if you enjoy this sort of literary naturalism, it might as well be good naturalism, so go and read that instead...or better still, one of Lewis's even better novels, like Arrowsmith, Dodsworth, Elmer Gantry, or It Can't Happen Here. Those still have something to say, even though they were written almost a century ago...while Rabbit Is Rich, written less than half a century ago, doesn't.
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progresses it becomes increasingly difficult to care. The writing is comparatively bland, and the story is incredibly predictable. I knew everything that was going to happen before it did, with the exception of what Updike seemed to be leading up to as the climax. As it turns out, it was more of an anti-climax. (I should probably give a spoiler warning here, in case anyone cares, not that it matters.)The entire book seems to be building up to Rabbit's son Nelson having an affair with a girl who he doesn't know might be his half-sister, Rabbit's illegitimate daughter from his own affair back in Rabbit, Run. And then, it simply doesn't happen (and the book leaves unresolved whether she is in fact Rabbit's daughter or not). And it's not just that these were the characters' perceptions that Updike was reporting and they turned out to be misapprehensions...during the scenes between Nelson and the girl, they know nothing about what's going on. So basically, Updike is just screwing with us. On the one hand, it's kind of a relief that he doesn't go there, that he draws the line at incest (though he doesn't stick at much else, including wife-swapping and golden showers). But since he was making us think it anyway, he might as well have gone there, and not to do so is artistically dishonest. It's the same kind of stunt hacks like Dan Brown pull...and yet, Updike wins a Pulitzer for it (though I can't say I'm surprised).
Updike quotes from Babbitt in the epigraph, but he is no Sinclair Lewis. My recommendation is, if you enjoy this sort of literary naturalism, it might as well be good naturalism, so go and read that instead...or better still, one of Lewis's even better novels, like Arrowsmith, Dodsworth, Elmer Gantry, or It Can't Happen Here. Those still have something to say, even though they were written almost a century ago...while Rabbit Is Rich, written less than half a century ago, doesn't.
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LibraryThing member donaldgallinger
The third in the series of Rabbit books, Updike has glorious fun with Rabbit as the prosperous owner of a Toyota dealership. Flush with money, Rabbit navigates the world of upper-class America in his usual bumbling and yet insightful way. Updike has lots of sly fun with 80's style Reagan values of
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"greed is good." A classic. Show Less
LibraryThing member tzelman
A work of pensive maturity--Rabbit is still dislikable, but this one is richer, contains more Nelson
LibraryThing member alexrichman
More involving than the second book in the series but never matching the exciting urgency of the first, perhaps because the protagonist is carrying so many more years - and so much more timber. The final section is particularly brilliant, with a satisfying pay-off to the rest of the novel's warning
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signals. Show Less
LibraryThing member agnesmack
Rabbit is Rich is the 3rd in a 4 part series centering around Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.
I did not enjoy the first book in this series at all. The 2nd book, Rabbit Redux, I found myself really enjoying. The main difference between those two was that while the first book left me feeling no empathy
The third, Rabbit is Rich, picked up 10 years after the second left off. In it, Rabbit has become a middle aged man, who finds himself virtually adventure-free. His problems center around his annoying mother-in-law, with whom him and his wife live, and his aggravating and dull son, Nelson.
I'm halfway through the final book in the series (well, there's also a novella that sounds sort of like an epilogue, but it's not technically part of the series) and I can say that I did enjoy Rabbit is Rich much more than any of the other books in the series. Updike has this amazing ability to give so many fucking details that I should be pulling my hair out, yet he does it so effectively that I smile through most of the pages of his books. Though the story is told through the 3rd person perspective, the level of detail and metaphor really make me feel that I'm reading Harry's thoughts and seeing things through his eyes.
I did not enjoy the first book in this series at all. The 2nd book, Rabbit Redux, I found myself really enjoying. The main difference between those two was that while the first book left me feeling no empathy
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towards Rabbit, the second made me really come to appreciate this admitted asshole, and his bizarre life.The third, Rabbit is Rich, picked up 10 years after the second left off. In it, Rabbit has become a middle aged man, who finds himself virtually adventure-free. His problems center around his annoying mother-in-law, with whom him and his wife live, and his aggravating and dull son, Nelson.
I'm halfway through the final book in the series (well, there's also a novella that sounds sort of like an epilogue, but it's not technically part of the series) and I can say that I did enjoy Rabbit is Rich much more than any of the other books in the series. Updike has this amazing ability to give so many fucking details that I should be pulling my hair out, yet he does it so effectively that I smile through most of the pages of his books. Though the story is told through the 3rd person perspective, the level of detail and metaphor really make me feel that I'm reading Harry's thoughts and seeing things through his eyes.
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LibraryThing member santhony
Rabbit is Rich is the third installment of the tetralogy written by John Updike, featuring as its protagonist, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. This book follows Rabbit Run and Rabbit Redux which follow the life of Angstrom in his hometown of Mt. Judge, near Brewster, Pennsylvania. When we left Rabbit
Rabbit is Rich finds Angstrom roughly ten years later, reconciled with his wife Janice, co-owning and managing the car dealership that he and his wife inherited with the death of his father-in-law. Rabbit is drawing a salary of $500/week and taking profits from the dealership of an additional $15,000/year. Rabbit is rich.
The time frame is the late 70s, Jimmy Carter is President, inflation is rampant, gas prices are soaring and a general malaise has fallen over the country, but Rabbit is selling Toyotas like hotcakes. Much of the action centers upon Rabbit’s dysfunctional relationship with his college aged son and interaction between he, his wife and their country club friends.
While much of the writing is entertaining and very well done, it must be noted that at times, Updike seems to fly off on wild screeds of florid, almost unintelligible prose that leave the reader simply rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, the characters contained in the story are well presented and fleshed out beautifully, even some of the more peripheral players. All in all, this is a fascinating look at life during the late 70s, from the perspective of a middle class, Pennsylvania family, though Rabbit and his circumstances can hardly be viewed as representative. This may be the best of the three “Rabbit” books I’ve read so far. On to the finale, Rabbit at Rest.
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at the conclusion of Rabbit Redux, he had just lost his job as a linotypist, lost his wife to a Greek car salesman and taken up with two 60s era hippies, an interlude that ended in the death of one and the fiery destruction of his home. Rabbit is Rich finds Angstrom roughly ten years later, reconciled with his wife Janice, co-owning and managing the car dealership that he and his wife inherited with the death of his father-in-law. Rabbit is drawing a salary of $500/week and taking profits from the dealership of an additional $15,000/year. Rabbit is rich.
The time frame is the late 70s, Jimmy Carter is President, inflation is rampant, gas prices are soaring and a general malaise has fallen over the country, but Rabbit is selling Toyotas like hotcakes. Much of the action centers upon Rabbit’s dysfunctional relationship with his college aged son and interaction between he, his wife and their country club friends.
While much of the writing is entertaining and very well done, it must be noted that at times, Updike seems to fly off on wild screeds of florid, almost unintelligible prose that leave the reader simply rolling his eyes. Nevertheless, the characters contained in the story are well presented and fleshed out beautifully, even some of the more peripheral players. All in all, this is a fascinating look at life during the late 70s, from the perspective of a middle class, Pennsylvania family, though Rabbit and his circumstances can hardly be viewed as representative. This may be the best of the three “Rabbit” books I’ve read so far. On to the finale, Rabbit at Rest.
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LibraryThing member rhand
Ahhh ... my favorite so far of the Rabbit novels. I've read the first three and haven't gotten to the last one yet.
LibraryThing member Lisa.Johnson.James
Glad to finally finish up this last book in the Rabbit Angstrom series. This one ties up a lot of loose ends, as we find Rabbit comfortable & middle aged, his marriage finally solid again, Rabbit in charge of the dealership his father in law owned after Janice's father passes away. They have a
They go through a bunch of different things, including a "shotgun wedding" when Nelson finally shows up with Pru/Teresa, who is pregnant & refuses to either get rid of or give up the baby.
The terminology of some of the language is part of why this series is on the banned book list, but it was the most engaging & interesting of the four, in my own opinion.
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membership to the country club, & at the beginning of the book, Nelson is in college. The problems begin when Nelson quits college & shows up at the family home with a girl, which crowds the old Springer home, where Rabbit & his wife live to take care of her mother after her father's death. Rabbit & Nelson clash multiple times over Nelson's future, & Rabbit is still unhappy with his life.They go through a bunch of different things, including a "shotgun wedding" when Nelson finally shows up with Pru/Teresa, who is pregnant & refuses to either get rid of or give up the baby.
The terminology of some of the language is part of why this series is on the banned book list, but it was the most engaging & interesting of the four, in my own opinion.
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LibraryThing member brakketh
Rabbit is entering middle age having bought into the American system and getting rich. Rabbit continues to be shocking in his frankness of approach to his life.
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This is the 3rd in the Rabbit Angstrom series and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Interestingly, this is my least favorite book of the series. All 3 books have a common theme of searching for meaning and purpose in life with a constant background of Rabbit's obsession with
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sex. In the first book, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit is a young man who got his high school girlfriend pregnant and feels trapped in his marriage. I enjoyed this book, partly because the setting is the idyllic 50's and Rabbit's confusion over where is life is going makes sense for his age. The 2nd book, Rabbit Redux takes place in the turbulent 60's. Rabbit is divorced and is going through a midlife crisis and is swept up in the turmoil of the times - Viet Nam, race riots, protests, etc. But in this book, we are now in the 70s. Rabbit has a good job, a stable marriage, but like the other two books, he is still searching. I guess I would expect by now that Rabbit would have grown in character and not have the same obsession with women's bodies and oral sex and fantasize about his son's girlfriend. He is way too old and has experienced too many tragedies to be this whiny and self obsessed. Although I've never liked him, I expected some change. Show Less
LibraryThing member SigmundFraud
Rabbit is Rich by John Updike is a masterpiece. Some think it is his best novel. Not having read much Updike I cannot say. The protagonist, Harry, aka Rabbit, Angstrom is a proxy for Archie Bunker in All in the Family. He is hysterical and as unpolitically correct as imaginable.He says whatever
The book is actually quite funny and I found myself frequently laughing out loud. It makes me want to read the other Rabbit books but I can't imagine that they are as funny as this one. It is a novel of manners and captures the small town bourgeoisie and the period of the 1970s very well. I strongly recommend this book. I am told his short stories are particularly good so I will try them.
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comes to his mind, especially about Jews and blacks, but no one is spared.Rabbitt is obsessed with sex. Sex is on every page. I was surprised considering when it was published.Updike has out-Roth-ed Roth.The book is actually quite funny and I found myself frequently laughing out loud. It makes me want to read the other Rabbit books but I can't imagine that they are as funny as this one. It is a novel of manners and captures the small town bourgeoisie and the period of the 1970s very well. I strongly recommend this book. I am told his short stories are particularly good so I will try them.
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LibraryThing member browner56
There is a brief passage near the end of Rabbit Is Rich that does a wonderful job of underscoring one of the novel’s main themes: ”Life. Too much of it, and not enough. The fear that it will end some day, and the fear that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.” Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom,
The third of four novels focusing on Angstrom, Rabbit is Rich is ultimately an unblinking character study of a man who has reached his 40s, with all the successes, failures, frustrated hopes, and dreams still to be realized that this age implies. When he is not fretting over selling Toyota automobiles—Harry’s day job, courtesy of his overbearing mother-in-law—he spends most of his time drinking and playing golf with his buddies, thinking about sex, worrying about current economic conditions, reminiscing about the past and contemplating death, or feuding with his son, who has his own secrets to protect. I found Updike’s prose to be precise, insightful, and often very funny. The author was a keen observer of what it meant to be both middle class and middle age during that era and the story he tells here is one that is both richly detailed and compelling. It is also a tale that is occasionally vulgar and profane, but never beyond the bounds of what befits the character. After reading this novel, you may not like Rabbit, in all his self-absorbed and clueless glory, but you will definitely have a better understanding of what makes him tick.
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author John Updike’s irrepressible mid-20th century Everyman, has reached middle age, relatively unscathed by the travails of his earlier years. He and his wife Janice have settled into a routine that their relative affluence affords them in their Pennsylvania suburb in the late 1970s. But Rabbit finds himself still running—searching is probably a better word—for whatever it is he doesn’t have: improved business prospects, resolution about the status of a long-lost daughter, a better relationship with his son, more sex (especially with his friend’s much younger wife), and a more reliable golf swing. In short, he has reached the point in life where he has acquired much of what he wants, but remains unsatisfied with all that he has.The third of four novels focusing on Angstrom, Rabbit is Rich is ultimately an unblinking character study of a man who has reached his 40s, with all the successes, failures, frustrated hopes, and dreams still to be realized that this age implies. When he is not fretting over selling Toyota automobiles—Harry’s day job, courtesy of his overbearing mother-in-law—he spends most of his time drinking and playing golf with his buddies, thinking about sex, worrying about current economic conditions, reminiscing about the past and contemplating death, or feuding with his son, who has his own secrets to protect. I found Updike’s prose to be precise, insightful, and often very funny. The author was a keen observer of what it meant to be both middle class and middle age during that era and the story he tells here is one that is both richly detailed and compelling. It is also a tale that is occasionally vulgar and profane, but never beyond the bounds of what befits the character. After reading this novel, you may not like Rabbit, in all his self-absorbed and clueless glory, but you will definitely have a better understanding of what makes him tick.
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LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This novel was a little better than Rabbit Redux. It was more focused on the social dynamics of a dysfunctional familial relationship- in the veneer of the "Rabbit" family. I viewed it as an intimate character study of an individual and his family and I believe herein lies the strength of the novel
3 stars.
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in full. There were parts that were a bit long and overdone, but overall it was plausible (I suppose) as the work of fiction that it was setting out to be. Updike is an odd writer, that much I am assured of, but with everything that happens in this novel, I do believe that he's managed to capture something (even if it is fragments of a tattered life that is beset by difficulties and decadence.) 3 stars.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
The third novel in the Rabbit Angstrum series, Harry is middle aged, his son is away at college and he and Janice live with Janice’s mother. Harry is running Springer Motors and believes he is owner but really, he works for his mother-in-law and his wife. Harry has become obsessed with money. His
Rabbit is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1981. Of the three that I have read so far, I liked this the least and I like Harry the least in this book. There is way too much sex talk and thoughts on Harry’s part and the words used are offensive. What Updike does so well is capture time. In this book, the reader revisits the first oil shortage, Carter administration, eighties inflation. It just wasn’t a very interesting time as the previous book but still a walk down memory lane. Harry does redeem himself with the last sentences of the book when he is holding his granddaughter.
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son can’t make a decision and appears to be irresponsible (a lot like Harry) and he is also obsessed with the daughter he had with Ruth.Rabbit is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1981. Of the three that I have read so far, I liked this the least and I like Harry the least in this book. There is way too much sex talk and thoughts on Harry’s part and the words used are offensive. What Updike does so well is capture time. In this book, the reader revisits the first oil shortage, Carter administration, eighties inflation. It just wasn’t a very interesting time as the previous book but still a walk down memory lane. Harry does redeem himself with the last sentences of the book when he is holding his granddaughter.
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LibraryThing member AliceAnna
Yet again, I really don't like this guy, but I could hardly put the book down. Janice comes into her own in this one, but Rabbit is still a weak-willed ne'er do well, and his grown son is now following in his footsteps. But I just couldn't wait to see how they would screw up their lives next.
LibraryThing member samatoha
This is Updike at the pick of his powers.
A master of dialougs and realism, with a bit of Nabokov's stream of consciousness, he continues the tale of Harry Angstrom, a man that is so realisticlly well portraited, he won't be easily forgot, and with all his faults and advantages,will also be missed.
A master of dialougs and realism, with a bit of Nabokov's stream of consciousness, he continues the tale of Harry Angstrom, a man that is so realisticlly well portraited, he won't be easily forgot, and with all his faults and advantages,will also be missed.
LibraryThing member Ghost_Boy
This was a great book. Better then the first two. Mainly because it did end with you feeling sick to you stomach. Don't get me wrong I loved the first two books or else I wouldn't read the third one, but the ending to those would make others never read an Updike book ever again. This ending though
Probably the main reasons I love this book is the fact there was this entire father and son feud going on between Rabbit and Nelson. Threw out the book there is tension and you can help but feel sorry for Nelson having a bad father and also sorry for Rabbit for having a son who doesn't listen to his father. I find it sadly true that some fathers (like Rabbit) care more about their car than their own son.
If you want some questions from the first novel dealing with Ruth, this book answers them too. He is consistently thinking about Ruth what happened the the baby they had together. It's kind of odd at time he'd be thinning about Ruth and his bastard child, but at the same time you'd expect that from Rabbit.
Be warned if you pick up this book or any of the Rabbit books though. They are filled with sex and swears to the point it might make you not want to read the book. However, keep in mind that Updike probably did this for a reason. I believe he made Rabbit such a bigot and other characters dislikeable to show that they are just human. There's no hero you root for or villain you want destroyed in these books. You just observing live threw the eyes of a average American male.
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is worth the read.Probably the main reasons I love this book is the fact there was this entire father and son feud going on between Rabbit and Nelson. Threw out the book there is tension and you can help but feel sorry for Nelson having a bad father and also sorry for Rabbit for having a son who doesn't listen to his father. I find it sadly true that some fathers (like Rabbit) care more about their car than their own son.
If you want some questions from the first novel dealing with Ruth, this book answers them too. He is consistently thinking about Ruth what happened the the baby they had together. It's kind of odd at time he'd be thinning about Ruth and his bastard child, but at the same time you'd expect that from Rabbit.
Be warned if you pick up this book or any of the Rabbit books though. They are filled with sex and swears to the point it might make you not want to read the book. However, keep in mind that Updike probably did this for a reason. I believe he made Rabbit such a bigot and other characters dislikeable to show that they are just human. There's no hero you root for or villain you want destroyed in these books. You just observing live threw the eyes of a average American male.
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Media reviews
"Rabbit Is Rich," a novel by John Updike published in 1981, is the third book in the "Rabbit" series, following the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. Set in the late 1970s against the backdrop of the American economic boom and the energy crisis, the novel captures Rabbit in middle age, now running
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his father-in-law's Toyota dealership, a symbol of his newfound prosperity and the shifting economic landscape of the time.
As Rabbit navigates the complexities of wealth, family, and societal change, the novel delves into themes of materialism, dissatisfaction, and the search for meaning beyond the trappings of success. Rabbit is depicted as a character who, despite achieving what appears to be the American dream, grapples with a sense of emptiness and the challenges of adapting to a changing world.
"Rabbit Is Rich" is notable for its rich character development, intricate narrative style, and the way it captures the zeitgeist of the era. Updike's portrayal of Rabbit's life, with its ups and downs, reflects broader themes of American identity, generational conflict, and the pursuit of happiness. The novel won several prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award, cementing its status as a significant work in American literature and continuing the deep exploration of one man's journey through the latter half of the 20th century. Show Less
Rarely has a single character been so faithfully followed for so many years by so many readers. Rarely has anyone written like John Updike. As a writer, he dared his fellows to be perceptive, to be honest, and above all to be specific. How large his footprint, how ghosted.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0449245489 / 9780449245484
Physical description
448 p.; 4 inches
Pages
448