Rabbit, Run by John Updike - Book Group Sept 2023 discussion thread
10 watchers
Aug 2023
11:24am, 29 Aug 2023
53,125 posts
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McGoohan
Run Updike, run Updike run, run, run Here comes the farmer with his gun, gun, gun He'll get by with his Updike pie So run Updike, run Updike run, run, run So begins Rabbit, Run by John Updike, the prequel to Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. Please blast your shotguns of opinion into the thread below. |
Aug 2023
11:40am, 29 Aug 2023
81,037 posts
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Diogenes
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Aug 2023
11:48am, 29 Aug 2023
53,127 posts
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McGoohan
Gercha!
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Sep 2023
8:52pm, 1 Sep 2023
13,772 posts
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Little Nemo
My cover has got a line drawing of a topless woman on it  Just as well I don't commute any more so I won't have to hide the cover
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Sep 2023
1:29pm, 13 Sep 2023
7,677 posts
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westmoors
Finished this last night. Not really sure what I think about it. I didn't like most (any) of the characters and hated Rabbit saying he loved Ruth after knowing her for 5 minutes. However, it couldn't have been all bad as I kept picking it up. Gave it a mediocre 6.
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Sep 2023
8:43pm, 21 Sep 2023
53,155 posts
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McGoohan
Okay, so.... I started a physical copy and couldn't get on with it. Took it back to the library. But while I was away, I used an Audible free trial and downloaded that. It was better, in that the reader William Hope was very good. However, I didn't last much longer. Another DNF for me.
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Sep 2023
9:30am, 22 Sep 2023
4,064 posts
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jacdaw
I need to dig my copy of the Rabbit trilogy out, and read it again, because I thought they were some of the best books I've ever read. And the fourth, is pretty good, too (it won the Pulitzer prize, as did the third). I know his attitudes are kind of dated, and particularly the way he treats women (Updike and Rabbit), and I know Updike seems to be a bit love him or hate him, but I'm still surprised at the reactions here. |
Sep 2023
12:49pm, 23 Sep 2023
29,131 posts
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Serendippily
I think ive read one of the rabbit series before and found its hemingwayesque/Picasso-type agonising over men and their seed somewhat tedious. So it is mildly damning with faint praise to say i found more in this than i feared, without ever looking forward to picking it up. I got the nods to joyce in the female monologues, and i guess the concept that women could enjoy sex if you made some effort might have been novel at the time, regardless that it is always portrayed as ultimately submissive. I liked the lack of moral judgement- there are outright dislikeable people and flawed people but mostly just weak people, neither hero nor antihero, trying to flounder through the day. But there is also consequence in terms of the baby’s death, and guilt and self-deceit, and generally the interesting stuff, if just more gendered than would be my preference. I enjoyed the scene with the two preachers and the scenes in Mrs Rabbit’s kitchen. There was a good quote from Angus Wison on the back of my edition and while i didnt find it sexy, i did find it often in bad taste and basically cynical and i did think -and good luck to it. Gave it an 8, glad to have read it, not particularly interested in reading the follow ups |
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Sep 2023
2:26pm, 23 Sep 2023
81,558 posts
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Diogenes
I think that’s a very good summary, Dipps. I’d say that at the time it was written the attitudes it presented were not considered questionable. Updike (and others) pointed a light at them.
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Sep 2023
2:30pm, 25 Sep 2023
81,590 posts
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Diogenes
I heard today that Updike was frequently updating the Rabbit books right up to his death. I'm not sure in what what way he was doing this, whether he was sanitising them for modern mores or just polishing up the odd sentence or two. In the course of trying to find out I came across the article below which has put me off revisiting Updike any further. lrb.co.uk |
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