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Rabbit, Run (Penguin Modern Classics) [Kindle Edition]

John Updike (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews) |
Print List Price: £9.99
Kindle Price: £7.99 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Product Description

It's 1959 and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life. Because, as he knows only too well, 'after you've been first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick out of being second-rate'.

Synopsis

Tired of the responsibility of married life, Harry Angstrom leaves his wife and home.
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 443 KB
  • Print Length: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (1 Jun 2006)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B002RI9L8A
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #11,628 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Author

John Updike
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Rabbit, Run is an exploration into how a man copes with mediocrity, after being excellent at something. In this case, the Rabbit is Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, a frustrated 26 year old man, who was once a great basketball player, now stuck in a loveless marriage and a second rate job. Rabbit runs, with devastating consequences.

This is a book which cuts to the quick of the human condition, cynically explores brilliantly the difficulty of simply living an 'un-special' existence, and the breakdown of relationships through that costal erosion effect of gradually falling out of love with your partner.

I can't believe that it took me 33 years to come to John Updike. Reading Rabbit, Run is a real challenge, because as a recently married man, the issues that he so deftly deals with, have some resonance. I think the beauty of his writing, is in his ability to unnervingly hit upon the essence of what makes life so hard to live. Parts of the book are uncomfortable to read, but because they are so well written, you cannot help but tag along for the ride. This is not a book to read if you are looking to cheer yourself up, but if you want to better understand the human condition, I think you could do no better.
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Heather VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
This book tells the story of the once great college sportsman Harry 'rabbit' Angstrom, who at the age of twenty six has made nothing of his former talent and feels trapped in a loveless marriage, to an alcoholic wife who is unable to keep their home and young son under control. Rabbit is stifled by his dreary suburban existence and cannot escape the feeling that having once been a 'first rate' sportsman, being second rate just doesnt cut it. Unable to accept his life as it is, Harry walks out on his wife and child and begins a complicated journey to rid himself of his dull existence. Along the way, meeting his one time sports coach Mr. Tothero and striking up an odd friendship with a priest.

The book explores the suburban experience of an outsider, one who cannot conform to the life he has become tangled up in. In much the same manner as writers like John Cheever and Richard Yates, this book explores the disasterous effects of characters whose expectations of life have been seriously diminished.

This book is really well written and has a clear narrative voice, while the reader may not agree with Harry's actions, we cannot help but become immersed in his world. This book is the first of four 'Rabbit' books which follow Harry throughout his life, but also acts as a great introduction to Updike. Highly recommended!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first in a series of four books Updike wrote to document a rather unique view of America in each decade from the Sixties. The writing style makes for very slow reading, the attention to detail is sometimes painful because you will be left waiting for a dialogue to continue while he describes the character's frame of mind and reference. It brings you very close to the characters, often uncomfortably close.

Updike's characters are not cheerleaders and college football hero's. He writes about everyone else, the vast forgotten people who didn't become celebrities and sports stars and who have become cynical if not downright bitter and angry. It's compelling reading but don't look for a happy ending either, nobody learns any lessons or becomes an American hero and if he does acknowledge the American Dream it is only to say "forget about it, it's not for you".

This is hard gritty writing with a scattering of black humour, you'll need to set some time aside to read it, and the three follow ups. I've read the first two and I will start the third once my sensibilities have had a chance to recuperate. I would recommend this book to everyone except cheerleaders and football hero's.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Breathtaking
Rabbit Run is the first in a series by John Updike depicting the life of Rabbit Angstrom, former basketball hero, now a dull husband in a dull job in a dull town. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Keeping it real
Rabbit, Run is a claustrophobic book, set almost exclusively in the confines of two rural conjoined towns in country Pennsylvania. Read more
Published 18 months ago by cholser
A suburban life fully realised
I "get" Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom (his name is a clue). His youth has been derailed by the draft, two years spent under military discipline, far from home, where the choices... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. A. V. Ward
Rabbit, Run
`Rabbit, Run' is the first instalment in Updike's four part Rabbit series and it follows Harry `Rabbit' Angstrom as he goes through a mini mid life crisis and leaves his pregnant... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Spider Monkey
Rabbit Run
Totally trouble free transaction, provding a product that has given much enjoyment to a very close friend.
Published 20 months ago by Mr. J. Barratt
John Updike - Rabbit, Run
This is an odd book that inspires mixed feelings in me. It's rare to read a book where the behaviour of the lead character is so repellent and yet the novel itself so compelling. Read more
Published 23 months ago by RachelWalker
American anti-hero
Harry `Rabbit' Angstrom is an anti-hero for 1960s America and for modern times: self-centred, irresponsible, sybaritic, pusillanimous. Rabbit is an ex-college basketball player. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2009 by reader 451
But not too far
Former High School basketball star stares adult life in the face and flees. Probably best not to admit to empathising too much with Rabbit. I did, though. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2009 by M. Dale
Damned with faint praise
This was the choice of my book group. The rest thoroughly enjoyed it but I didn't. It's a humorous story set in '50s America, about a school basketball star now in his 20s, with... Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by Fwat
a real classic
this is a real classic of American literature. i read it for my book club and we all agreed that it was brilliantly written and well worth perservering with (it does take a little... Read more
Published on 6 July 2009 by Ms. D. Simon
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Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks. &quote;
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We shed more skins than we can count, and are born each day to a merciful forgetfulness. We forget most of our past but embody all of it. &quote;
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as the neighbors listened old wounds opened like complicated flowers in the night. &quote;
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