Series
Publication
Random House Trade Paperbacks (1996), Edition: Reissue, 450 pages
Original publication date
1971
Collections
Genres
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 1972)
Description
In 1969, the times are changing in America. Things just aren't as simple as they used to be for Rabbit Angstrom. His wife leaves him, and suddenly, into his confused life comes Jill, a runaway who becomes his lover. But when she invites her friend to stay, a young black radical named Skeeter, the pair's fragile harmony soon begins to fail.
User reviews
LibraryThing member figre
Let's face it, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is not a very likable person. And he has a tendency to let life happen around him. Even when it looks like he will take action, the action actually seems to take him. (Yes, I know that is a rather blithe statement, but it is true for this character.) He is a
In the second book of the Rabbit series, we join Rabbit ten plus years after the events of the first novel. He has become what might be thought of as the typical 50s/60s blue-collar drone. His life begins to fall apart (again – it did a bit of falling in the first book) shortly after the novel starts. His mother is going into dementia, his job is going nowhere, and his wife has (gasp) her own job.
Remember, this is the 60s, and women in some workplaces - particularly married women in the workplace - was still a novel idea. It was a disturbing and fearful thought. In particular, people were facing the fear that, as women gained new freedom, they might take new liberties. And so it happens in this novel. While on the job, Rabbit's wife finds another man, leaving him and their 13-year-old boy on their own. This allows life to take Rabbit by the hand and run him through its wringer.
As Rabbit gets drug along, this novel explores many of the fears of the times. And, really, all those fears have to do with change. Beyond the explosion of women in the workplace and the associated new freedoms they were experiencing, the novel also brushes against (and sometimes runs smack into) the expanding freedoms for minorities, the threat of Communism, the influence of neighborhood solidarity on maintaining the status quo, seismic scientific discoveries and explorations, and the fear that everything we believed for our entire lives might turn out to not be true.
Although I was only in my early teens at the time this book was written, I remember many of these aspects very well. And that, then, speaks to a very important, unnamed character in this book – the zeitgeist (yes, I hate that word, too – but it works here) in which these individuals live. We all know the 60s were a tumultuous time that was shaking the foundations of what many believed. As shown above, the characters within this book are being assaulted by those changes. And the times they live in permeate everything that is said and done. In fact, Updike has specifically chosen to embed current events in a way that ensures the reader never forgets what is going on in the broader world while the protagonists live their smaller lives.
At the time this book was published (1971), I am sure this represented both an eye-opener to some who did not realize the full ramifications of what was going on around them, and a validation to those who did. What this means is that, for today's reader, the book is a time capsule of what it was like for one small portion of the populace to live in that time.
But, let's get back to the character of Rabbit. I do not like Rabbit. I do not like the kind of person he is. I do not like the way he treats other people. I do not like his approach to life. I do not like his acceptance of things that happen. I do not like being in his company. But, because this book speaks to so many important ideas, and because the story itself is compelling, I can get past my inherent dislike of Rabbit. And, while I may not cheer for Rabbit, I do want to know what will happen next.
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lug, but not a loveable lug. And it is far too easy to condemn almost every move he makes. However, the story wrapped around this unlikable individual is too compelling to be ignored. And it is easy to see, after having read just two of the books, how this character was the basis for a tetralogy.In the second book of the Rabbit series, we join Rabbit ten plus years after the events of the first novel. He has become what might be thought of as the typical 50s/60s blue-collar drone. His life begins to fall apart (again – it did a bit of falling in the first book) shortly after the novel starts. His mother is going into dementia, his job is going nowhere, and his wife has (gasp) her own job.
Remember, this is the 60s, and women in some workplaces - particularly married women in the workplace - was still a novel idea. It was a disturbing and fearful thought. In particular, people were facing the fear that, as women gained new freedom, they might take new liberties. And so it happens in this novel. While on the job, Rabbit's wife finds another man, leaving him and their 13-year-old boy on their own. This allows life to take Rabbit by the hand and run him through its wringer.
As Rabbit gets drug along, this novel explores many of the fears of the times. And, really, all those fears have to do with change. Beyond the explosion of women in the workplace and the associated new freedoms they were experiencing, the novel also brushes against (and sometimes runs smack into) the expanding freedoms for minorities, the threat of Communism, the influence of neighborhood solidarity on maintaining the status quo, seismic scientific discoveries and explorations, and the fear that everything we believed for our entire lives might turn out to not be true.
Although I was only in my early teens at the time this book was written, I remember many of these aspects very well. And that, then, speaks to a very important, unnamed character in this book – the zeitgeist (yes, I hate that word, too – but it works here) in which these individuals live. We all know the 60s were a tumultuous time that was shaking the foundations of what many believed. As shown above, the characters within this book are being assaulted by those changes. And the times they live in permeate everything that is said and done. In fact, Updike has specifically chosen to embed current events in a way that ensures the reader never forgets what is going on in the broader world while the protagonists live their smaller lives.
At the time this book was published (1971), I am sure this represented both an eye-opener to some who did not realize the full ramifications of what was going on around them, and a validation to those who did. What this means is that, for today's reader, the book is a time capsule of what it was like for one small portion of the populace to live in that time.
But, let's get back to the character of Rabbit. I do not like Rabbit. I do not like the kind of person he is. I do not like the way he treats other people. I do not like his approach to life. I do not like his acceptance of things that happen. I do not like being in his company. But, because this book speaks to so many important ideas, and because the story itself is compelling, I can get past my inherent dislike of Rabbit. And, while I may not cheer for Rabbit, I do want to know what will happen next.
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LibraryThing member alexrichman
Presumably the dud of Updike's Rabbit sequels, this instalment was obsessed with sleaze and slavery, whisking us away from the superb stories of its predecessor and instead harping on endlessly about black messiahs and middle-class concubines. The sub-plot involving Rabbit's wife Janice comes
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closer to the magic of the first book in the series, and ultimately saved me from hating this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member samatoha
A little less better than the other 3 Rabbit books, bue still very good.
LibraryThing member oldblack
Ms Pearl...Nancy...I tried.
In fact I spent 5 days trying and got to around page 250 out of a weighty 400. But as your Rule of Fifty implies, life is too short to waste on reading a book which really isn't doing anything for me. Actually, it started off OK. Harry Angstrom's wife leaves him, and
I couldn't really make sense of a lot of the book at any level. I mean, what does this mean:
"...he lifts his head fastidiously, as if to watch the television..."
fastidiously??
and
"...he sees very clearly, as we see in the etched hour before snow."
Huh?
Maybe I haven't lived in snow enough, or with enough african-americans, but I couldn't relate to most of this story at all.
I think John Updike goes onto my 'don't bother' list.
It gets 2.5 stars only because I have a feeling that more intelligent people than me would find it a much more valid and interesting read.
In fact I spent 5 days trying and got to around page 250 out of a weighty 400. But as your Rule of Fifty implies, life is too short to waste on reading a book which really isn't doing anything for me. Actually, it started off OK. Harry Angstrom's wife leaves him, and
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every reader can see how Harry's concept of his masculinity makes it pretty hard for anyone to stick with him in a long term relationship. But at the point I stopped reading it, the story seemed to have degenerated into some sort of bizarre and totally unreal collection african-americans, rich whites, and Harry's wacky family. I couldn't really make sense of a lot of the book at any level. I mean, what does this mean:
"...he lifts his head fastidiously, as if to watch the television..."
fastidiously??
and
"...he sees very clearly, as we see in the etched hour before snow."
Huh?
Maybe I haven't lived in snow enough, or with enough african-americans, but I couldn't relate to most of this story at all.
I think John Updike goes onto my 'don't bother' list.
It gets 2.5 stars only because I have a feeling that more intelligent people than me would find it a much more valid and interesting read.
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LibraryThing member AshRyan
Something of a disappointment after Rabbit, Run...even more disgusting, but without any of the redeeming values. It isn't even as well written...there are a few nice passages, but also a lot of nonsense, and sometimes Updike can't even manage to write grammatically (he's especially bad about
In Rabbit Redux, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's wife leaves him for another man, and he gets himself entangled with a hippie girl and her crazy, messianic, drug-pushing revolutionary black lover. Set in the summer of '69 to a backdrop of racial tensions, the Vietnam war, the moon landing, etc., the story is almost more written for the sake of the backdrop than the other way around. For much of the novel, Rabbit is just a foil to express all the wrong views---he is racist, pro-Vietnam, etc. Unfortunately, the "ideas" offered as an alternative (mostly through the rather obnoxious rantings of Skeeter, the black lover), are merely half-baked Marxist economics and half-baked mysticism (both of which were half-baked to begin with). If this was really the best the '60s had to offer on either side, I'm glad I wasn't alive then---but I get the feeling this is just the best Updike had to offer.
Really, the best part of the book were some passages excerpted from Frederick Douglass, but the way these were framed within the story was disgusting. Douglass was a truly great man, and Updike wants to let nothing remain great. That should tell you all you need to know.
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keeping his pronouns straight, which is just lazy writing, and a bit of a common problem for him but I noticed it more this book than most of his others).In Rabbit Redux, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's wife leaves him for another man, and he gets himself entangled with a hippie girl and her crazy, messianic, drug-pushing revolutionary black lover. Set in the summer of '69 to a backdrop of racial tensions, the Vietnam war, the moon landing, etc., the story is almost more written for the sake of the backdrop than the other way around. For much of the novel, Rabbit is just a foil to express all the wrong views---he is racist, pro-Vietnam, etc. Unfortunately, the "ideas" offered as an alternative (mostly through the rather obnoxious rantings of Skeeter, the black lover), are merely half-baked Marxist economics and half-baked mysticism (both of which were half-baked to begin with). If this was really the best the '60s had to offer on either side, I'm glad I wasn't alive then---but I get the feeling this is just the best Updike had to offer.
Really, the best part of the book were some passages excerpted from Frederick Douglass, but the way these were framed within the story was disgusting. Douglass was a truly great man, and Updike wants to let nothing remain great. That should tell you all you need to know.
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LibraryThing member chrystal
I didn't care for this second book in the series, too much postualating which I found exhausting. I still couldn't put it down (although I skipped some passages) and am intrigued by Rabbit and his family. I am trying to read something else instead of beginning Rabbit is Rich, but may have to just
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go ahead and read it.. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kristelh
The second stage of Harry Angstrom, ten years later, finds Harry working as a printer at the Val in the dead end job he never wanted. Harry is described as “Now when he plays basketball he is heavy”. His son is 13 and he and his wife live in the massed produced, ranch style home in the new
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suburbia while the downtown areas are being turned into parking lots. In this story, Janice engages in an affair and leaves her husband. Harry is a conservative man in a flower child, dope smoking, Black Panther world of the late sixties as the Vietnam War grows less and less popular. Updike carries through with his themes of guilt, sex and death from the first book Rabbit, Run with the addition of racism. Sex and racism play a big part in this book. In fact it’s a little too over the top for me but, hey, it was the big deal in the sixties with free love, women’s rights and all. So Updike catches the times succinctly and that is what I liked about this book. It was so real, so part of my “younger life” with ephemera of 2001: Space Odyssey movie, Armstrong landing on the moon, families sitting around mindlessly watching TV and programming like Laugh In. The Beatles music of Hey Jude and Yesterday is mentioned, as well as civil unrest, riots and the trial of the Chicago 8. Death is a major theme as well as in such quotes as “life does want death” and “To be alive is to kill.” (page 310) and “…to die will be to be forever wide awake.”(317) Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
Rabbit Redux is the sequel to the novel Rabbit, Run written by John Updike, featuring as its protagonist, Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. When we left Rabbit at the conclusion of Rabbit Run, he had just suffered the loss of his infant daughter through the negligence of his estranged, alcoholic wife.
Rabbit Redux finds Angstrom ten years later, reconciled with his wife Janice, living a mundane existence with his wife and teen aged son in a dead end job. Things soon spice up, however, as Harry’s wife leaves him and he falls in with two interesting characters, an eighteen year old runaway hippie chick from Connecticut named Jill, and a twenty something year old African-American Vietnam veteran and radical fugitive from the law named Skeeter. Needless to say, the combination makes for quite an explosive household, even more so given Harry’s mainstream conservative political and social outlook.
The time frame of the story is 1969. The moon landing is in progress and the Vietnam War is in full swing. The Civil Rights movement is active and social unrest is ever present. Harry supports the War and the Nixon administration. He is uncomfortable around African-Americans and views them as largely leeches and lazy hangers on. The conversations between Harry and his new housemates are enlightening both to Harry and likely to the reader. Harry’s poor fourteen year old son is not only a witness, but an active participant in much that goes on.
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. By and large, I enjoyed not only underlying story, but much of the give and take contained in the political discussions between Harry and his more radical new friends. I look forward to the third Rabbit installment, Rabbit is Rich.
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Rabbit Redux finds Angstrom ten years later, reconciled with his wife Janice, living a mundane existence with his wife and teen aged son in a dead end job. Things soon spice up, however, as Harry’s wife leaves him and he falls in with two interesting characters, an eighteen year old runaway hippie chick from Connecticut named Jill, and a twenty something year old African-American Vietnam veteran and radical fugitive from the law named Skeeter. Needless to say, the combination makes for quite an explosive household, even more so given Harry’s mainstream conservative political and social outlook.
The time frame of the story is 1969. The moon landing is in progress and the Vietnam War is in full swing. The Civil Rights movement is active and social unrest is ever present. Harry supports the War and the Nixon administration. He is uncomfortable around African-Americans and views them as largely leeches and lazy hangers on. The conversations between Harry and his new housemates are enlightening both to Harry and likely to the reader. Harry’s poor fourteen year old son is not only a witness, but an active participant in much that goes on.
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. By and large, I enjoyed not only underlying story, but much of the give and take contained in the political discussions between Harry and his more radical new friends. I look forward to the third Rabbit installment, Rabbit is Rich.
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LibraryThing member jmoncton
Rabbit Redux is a continuation of the story of Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, first introduced in Updike's novel, Rabbit, Run. In the first book, set in the 1950's, Rabbit, feeling trapped in his marriage, leaves his wife. In this 2nd novel, Rabbit and his wife, Janice, are back together, but the setting
I have to admit that there is not a single character in these books that I like. Rabbit is obsessed with sex, treats women poorly, and never thinks about the consequences of his actions. But, I really enjoy the brutal honesty of the characters. Reading both books was especially interesting to see how much our society changed in just a decade. In Rabbit, Run, Janice was the typical American housewife of the 50's. Rabbit Redux is filled with the unrest of the 60's - Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, Black Militants - much more strife than simple Rabbit Angstrom is equipped to handle. There are two more books to this series each jumping another decade in Rabbit's life. Although I can't stand the guy, I am tempted to find out what happens to him.
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is 12 years later, during the turbulent and free 60's. This time, Janice is fed up with Rabbit and starts an affair with a co-worker. Rabbit is aware of Janice's affair and going with the 'free love' attitude of the times, accepts the relationship and doesn't push for her to end it. This time, Janice moves out and Rabbit is left to negotiate being alone as a single father. I have to admit that there is not a single character in these books that I like. Rabbit is obsessed with sex, treats women poorly, and never thinks about the consequences of his actions. But, I really enjoy the brutal honesty of the characters. Reading both books was especially interesting to see how much our society changed in just a decade. In Rabbit, Run, Janice was the typical American housewife of the 50's. Rabbit Redux is filled with the unrest of the 60's - Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, Black Militants - much more strife than simple Rabbit Angstrom is equipped to handle. There are two more books to this series each jumping another decade in Rabbit's life. Although I can't stand the guy, I am tempted to find out what happens to him.
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LibraryThing member Lisa.Johnson.James
This installment of the Rabbit Angstrom series takes place 10 years after the tragedy that ended the first book. Harry is now working in a printing house with his Dad, & they have bought a house in an up & coming neighborhood. Janice takes up with Charlie Stavros, a car salesman at Janice's Dad's
Not a bad book, but the political passages & the radical passages honestly bored me, so I skimmed over them. They really don't do anything for the storyline.
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car lot, where she works in the office. Janice movies out of their house & in with Charlie. Harry meets a girl named Jill, an underage runaway from a rich family in CT. Through a series of misadventures, Harry loses his home to a fire & has to move in with his parents..Not a bad book, but the political passages & the radical passages honestly bored me, so I skimmed over them. They really don't do anything for the storyline.
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LibraryThing member AliceAnna
I don't know why I find Rabbit so engaging. I really don't like him. I don't like any of his family or his friends, but somehow Updike sucked me in. The story was so desperate and unhappy and soul-less but I still wanted to know how it turned out.
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
This is the second in the Updike series about Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom and his life has moved on ten years. Rabbit appears to have made his peace with the world and has settled down. He works as a typesetter in the same print-shop where his father has worked for more than thirty years (a trade that
In Rabbit, Run, Rabbit left Janice for a mistress. In Rabbit Redux, Janice leaves Rabbit to live with her lover, Stavros. Rabbit acquiesces to this affair and stays home to care for his son, Nelson. Rabbit becomes a figure of jest and is seen as backward. When he accepts an invitation from a work colleague to visit a black frequented bar Rabbit ends up taking in Jill, a runaway flower child, and Skeeter, a bail-jumping Vietnam War veteran and black radical.
The rival claims of freedom and responsibility are explored from several different points of view. After twice deserting his wife in the earlier novel Rabbit is now trying to maintain a home in the face of increasing odds. This time his wife experiments with freedom by having an affair. Harry learns about this at a bar where the television repeatedly shows Apollo 11 blasting off to the moon revealing the emptiness in his life at the very moment that America is ready to explore far off horizons.
The drug-crazed Jill and Skeeter offer two more examples of the contest between freedom and responsibility. Both think of themselves as being free from the rules of convention. Skeeter's experience in Vietnam he believes that America is morally bankrupt and instead offers a mad vision of himself as a black Messiah. Whilst Jill expects to find love and freedom by rejecting the materialism, but instead she is sexually exploited and left to die in a burning house.
In the first book I found Rabbit to be selfish and arrogant and as such found it hard to empathise with but I found it much more likeable in this book. In Rabbit Run Harry felt that as a former local basketball star he was owed something by society and had a standing within it. Ten years later he has learnt that past glories count for nothing and that he has virtually been forgotten. He is rarely called Rabbit any more. I found it much easier to imagine a man trying to knuckle down,plod along and do the best he can by his family unable to keep pace with the ever increasing pace of technology. Harry still believes in the American way but America has little need for him and he loses virtually everything his wife, job and house forcing him to return to his parents home to live. A rather bleak outlook on modern American society.
After reading the first book I was unsure whether or not I really wanted to revisit Rabbit but having read this one am now quite keen to read more about him although it may be a while.
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will soon to be replaced by new technology.) Rabbit is much more passive than in the first book settling for ordinary rather than going out and grabbing adventure against the backdrop of the first landing on the moon, racial unrest back at home and protests against the Vietnam War. Rabbit is out of time, as a new age of space exploration begins. The astronauts become a metaphor for this more dynamic era.In Rabbit, Run, Rabbit left Janice for a mistress. In Rabbit Redux, Janice leaves Rabbit to live with her lover, Stavros. Rabbit acquiesces to this affair and stays home to care for his son, Nelson. Rabbit becomes a figure of jest and is seen as backward. When he accepts an invitation from a work colleague to visit a black frequented bar Rabbit ends up taking in Jill, a runaway flower child, and Skeeter, a bail-jumping Vietnam War veteran and black radical.
The rival claims of freedom and responsibility are explored from several different points of view. After twice deserting his wife in the earlier novel Rabbit is now trying to maintain a home in the face of increasing odds. This time his wife experiments with freedom by having an affair. Harry learns about this at a bar where the television repeatedly shows Apollo 11 blasting off to the moon revealing the emptiness in his life at the very moment that America is ready to explore far off horizons.
The drug-crazed Jill and Skeeter offer two more examples of the contest between freedom and responsibility. Both think of themselves as being free from the rules of convention. Skeeter's experience in Vietnam he believes that America is morally bankrupt and instead offers a mad vision of himself as a black Messiah. Whilst Jill expects to find love and freedom by rejecting the materialism, but instead she is sexually exploited and left to die in a burning house.
In the first book I found Rabbit to be selfish and arrogant and as such found it hard to empathise with but I found it much more likeable in this book. In Rabbit Run Harry felt that as a former local basketball star he was owed something by society and had a standing within it. Ten years later he has learnt that past glories count for nothing and that he has virtually been forgotten. He is rarely called Rabbit any more. I found it much easier to imagine a man trying to knuckle down,plod along and do the best he can by his family unable to keep pace with the ever increasing pace of technology. Harry still believes in the American way but America has little need for him and he loses virtually everything his wife, job and house forcing him to return to his parents home to live. A rather bleak outlook on modern American society.
After reading the first book I was unsure whether or not I really wanted to revisit Rabbit but having read this one am now quite keen to read more about him although it may be a while.
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LibraryThing member brakketh
Race and free love in America and Rabbit continues to wander through American history like a lost lamb looking for love and acceptance.
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This book was an exercise in self-destructive humiliation and deprecation. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong for Rabbit, and his son, did in this novel. I felt that this, essentially, plotless novel was not up to the standard of Rabbit, Run and I wasn't quite sure what Updike was
2 stars, and barely that.
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trying to get at. It didn't seem as real as the novel before and I did not really enjoy it as it mostly seemed to be concerned with degeneration of Rabbit's life in such a way that was not appealing. While it was a character study, this one did not grip me and I did not really enjoy it. I stumbled through this one to see if the series picks up again but, I must admit, this one was a heavily disappointing read.2 stars, and barely that.
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LibraryThing member Ghost_Boy
This book was good I thought over all. Obviously not the best in the series and ends in a way that you want more. Thank God there are other books to follow. I'm hoping the last two blow my mind because looking at the reviews on her they do better and they both won Pulitzer Prizes. All I can say for
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now that this is my favorite series thus far. He doesn't have too many characters to follow and the stories flow very nicely. Show Less
LibraryThing member nogomu
Double blech
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0449911934 / 9780449911938
Physical description
450 p.; 5.53 inches
Pages
450