Rabbit, Run by John Updike - Book Group Sept 2023 discussion thread

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Diogenes
Diogenes
Sep 2023
6:49pm, 26 Sep 2023
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Diogenes
LindsD I hated The Rachel Papers but rather enjoyed Dead Babies.

You may of may not enjoy The Pregnant Widow which I thought was an interesting reworking of a similar premise.
LindsD
LindsD
Sep 2023
7:01pm, 26 Sep 2023
64,085 posts
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LindsD
Sorry Diogenes :)
LindsD
LindsD
Sep 2023
7:02pm, 26 Sep 2023
64,086 posts
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LindsD
I haven't read that one. But London Fields is one of my favourite books. As I've probably said loads of times before.
Columba
Columba
Sep 2023
9:58pm, 26 Sep 2023
22,306 posts
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Columba
I thought this was very good; and I didn't like it at all, and I don't want to read any of the others.

I appreciated the strange style; the way feelings (relationships; interactions) are described in terms of sensations or visible/tactile phenomena ("Her voice has risen in pitch and abrades Eccles' face like a file; he feels covered with cuts"). But oh what a poisonous person that Rabbit is. Irresponsible, unreliable, entirely lacking in empathy.
Columba
Columba
Sep 2023
10:12pm, 26 Sep 2023
22,307 posts
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Columba
I agree with LindsD's comments.
Little Nemo
Little Nemo
Oct 2023
7:02pm, 19 Oct 2023
14,037 posts
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Little Nemo
This is a hard book for me to review because although it is obviously an important work and well-written I just *hated* the story. I found myself not wanting to pick it up and having to use another book to alternate with to get through it.

I don't know how revolutionary at the time it would have been but it feels like the author gives a very honest account of 50s US and the struggles of married life. The limits of living in a small town and how trapped everyone can feel in the day to day of living how people expect you to live. On an objective point it flows well once you get used to it having no chapters and some of the writing is beautiful. I liked the way it opened out in the second half so you got the other viewpoints which made it less claustrophobic.

In common with a lot of these books written by men in the 50s-70s I just find myself despairing of the life women lived and how at the whim of men they are. Condemned for not wanting to have sex but also judged for wanting to have it. Even though there was contraception of sorts the single woman is shamed out of using it by her married lover. At least the women in this book have a voice which is more than happens in a lot of other novels but it's such a bleak life they are scratching out. All the way through I'm thinking "Thank God I wasn't tyring to live then!"

I know there are sequels but I'll be giving them a miss. Basically Rabbit is such an abhorrent character to me that I just hoped he had died in the woods!!!

On the writing I'd give this book a 7/8 but for the story it's a 3/4. So I'll compromise and give it a 6.

Thanks to westmoors for choosing it. Although I didn't exactly enjoy it, it is an important book to read and I probably would never have read it it otherwise.
LindsD
LindsD
Oct 2023
7:04pm, 19 Oct 2023
64,597 posts
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LindsD
Thank you. I totally agree
Little Nemo
Little Nemo
Oct 2023
7:19pm, 19 Oct 2023
14,038 posts
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Little Nemo
Seems like most of us hated the character! I wonder if people liked him when the book came out, or maybe he was always seen as problematic?
westmoors
westmoors
Oct 2023
7:20am, 20 Oct 2023
7,785 posts
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westmoors
Thanks LN. I agree with your sentiments and am glad I live in a time and place where women are more respected.

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About This Thread

Maintained by 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.

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