Reading 1001 discussion

The third novel in the Rabbit Angstrum series, Harry is middle aged, his son is away at college and he and Janice live with Janice’s mother. Harry is running Springer Motors and believes he is owner but really, he works for his mother-in-law and his wife. Harry has become obsessed with money. His son can’t make a decision and appears to be irresponsible (a lot like Harry) and he is also obsessed with the daughter he had with Ruth.
Rabbit is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982 and the National Book Critics Circle Read 2012. Award for Fiction in 1981. Of the three that I have read so far, I liked this the least and I like Harry the least in this book. There is way too much sex talk and thoughts on Harry’s part and the words used are offensive. What Updike does so well is capture time. In this book, the reader revisits the first oil shortage, Carter administration, eighties inflation. It just wasn’t a very interesting time as the previous book but still a walk down memory lane. Harry does redeem himself with the last sentences of the book when he is holding his granddaughter.

Rating: 3.5 stars


I like this installment much better than #2 (Rabbit Redux). Rabbit is now a middle-aged used car salesman. He is back with Janice and his son has become an adult. As in the otehr books of the series, Updike paints an accurate picture of the time and its fads and issues. As in other books in this series, there is way too much focus on sex and male parts. Not sure if I will read the 4th installment.

I gave this 1 star because it has all the problems I had with the other installments (misogynistic, protagonist who never really grows from the wild events of his life and is not very interesting or likeable to begin with, female characters that reek of written by a man, unbelievable writing transitions from the regular events to the wilder ones), but with the added bonus that I also found this one more boring than the other ones.

I considered giving this 2 stars like the other rabbit books, but other than some discussions of the oil crisis of the 70s, there was nothing I liked about it. And I was just so done with the series at this point.

I found Rabbit (now mostly called Harry) readable as a character, but very hard to like, especially as he gets older and more powerful. He seemed such a terrible mixture of pathetic and bullying, I couldn't imagine why his wife put up with him, let alone other women apparently finding him irresistible.

It's a while since I read the earlier two books, but I think this was my least favourite. I see that I gave the first book five stars, and I still do appreciate Updike's prose - he does a great job of conjuring up a place and a time - it's just a pity about the characters and the story. Scraping 3 stars and I won't be rushing to read the fourth book in the series, especially as it's not on the list.