John Updike - Rabbit Run

Pros: Updike is the modern master of the sentence--this is prose that glows

Cons: Traces of misogyny might bother some readers

Review: A star high school basketball player, eight years after graduation, plays a back-alley pickup game with some kids. The years have not been kind to him, but he's still got the hoop dreams:

"He sinks shots one-handed, two-handed,...

Pros: Updike is a wordsmith; brilliant characters; deliciously gritty

Cons: May be too sexually explicit; Rabbit's view on women could be unsettling

The Bottom Line: Updike has shown himself to be a master of character creation, and Rabbit Angstrom is his very best creation. Amazing.

Review: Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom was once king of the high school world, a star basketball player, tall and handsome, and able to get the girls. Now, several years on, he is married, frustrated and unsure as to how it all ended up this way. One day, arriving home ...

Pros: Vivid Portrayal, Well-Written, Realistic, Funny

Cons: Wow... Not This One

The Bottom Line: Rabbit Run is an incredible story, it's a very realistic portrayal of one man's mid-life crisis.

Review: Rabbit, Run by John Updike is a true American classic. It portrays the life of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, an ex-highschool basketball player, who once had incredible athletic skills at the game, “got to the top” of his career, and “was...

Pros: Updike's Literary Style is breathtaking.

Cons: Harry Angstrom, the anti-hero.

The Bottom Line: Updike's literary style, makes this a truly enjoyable and wonderful read.

Review: In the world of modern American literature, you sometimes get caught up in the legalese of Grisham, the action and adventure of Clancy and Ludlum, or the sinister suspense of Puzo. Somehow, I had a flashback to my college lit class and grabbed a copy of...

Pros: Manages to create sympathy for a thoroughly conceited man. Written in a lyrical prose.

Cons: The misogyny and infidelity of Rabbit Angstrom might perturb some readers.

The Bottom Line: A must-read for anyone about to approach the Rabbit books.

Review: Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, former highschool basketball player, is an unhappy resident of Brewer, Pennsylvania. His wife Janice, whose father is a successful businessman named Fred Springer, is pregnant, and the generally self-absorbed Rabbit feels he is ...

Pros: Really connects you with the characters

Cons: The characters are human, so at times you hate being connected with them

The Bottom Line: this is a very interesting book, very entertaining. Updike is great at creating characters who feel like real people

Review: John Updike is great at writing about people. His character's feel real, like somebody you might meet in everyday life. Rabbit Angstrom is no exception. He's a real person whom you can relate to, but he's a complete jerk. In Rabbit Run, Updike makes ...

Pros: Powerful prose throughout climactic, tragic scene

Cons: Unlikable protagonist; unconvincing relationships

Review: I felt I couldn't call myself an avid reader without Updike on my shelf. So I began -- and may very well end -- with the first installment of his famous Rabbit series, Rabbit, Run.

Back in the late 1950s, it may have been worth reading for the...