Rating: 
Summary: There's Always Something: The Angstrom Saga Continues
Review: This is the final book in John Updike's Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom tetralogy. It is a good book with much to recommend, particularly the author's interesting fleshing-out of the character of Pru, Harry's daughter-in-law, but the Rabbit saga has clearly run out of steam. Besides spending much time rehashing the events of the earlier three books, the author also tries too hard to cram in all of the current events of the late 1980's as a method of juxtaposing them with those of Harry's personal life.Rabbit, now in his mid-fifties, is enduring a heart condition and the shennanigans of his troubled and irresponsible son, Nelson, who has assumed the management of his late grandfather's automobile dealership. This book concerns the losses one suffers in late middle age: the loss of youth, vigor and health, and with retirement, the loss of one's career together with the sense of usefulness to one's family and to one's self. All these factors trigger a quantum drop in poor Harry's self-esteem. All that is left to Harry Angstrom now are his memories: his childhood home, the good times with his younger sister Mim, and especially the fame he had as a high school basketball jock. In various parts of the book Rabbit is shown reading a book on American history his wife Janice had given to him as a present. It is apt that Harry Angstrom, now a creature of the American past, should spend some of his spare time reading about it. The history of the American man is about the adventures of past heroes or near-heroes, like Harry Angstrom. Rabbit also is seen listening to the news on his car radio or discussing with others the current events of the day. This is the world that has sadly passed Rabbit by. Rabbit, who has largely ignored his doctor's advice to follow a more healthful diet and to exercise more, attempts to redeem himself and to recapture some of his colorful past by shooting baskets with some street kids. The history of Harry Angstrom has now come full circle from the young Harry Angstrom of _Rabbit, Run._ Sometimes one fails to realize that he simply cannot go home again.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb, one of the best Rabbit books yet!
Review: Updike does a brilliant job of conveying the harsh realities of growing old through imagism and frank realism. His themes of marriage, sexual identity, and family are interesting and relevant to all who have ever identified with their family.
Rating: 
Summary: ANOTHER MODERN CLASSIC FROM UPDIKE
Review: Updike has provided the Rabbit series with an eloquent coda through this modern classic. True, the topic (heart disease) is depressing, but what I found saddest was saying goodbye to these characters with whom I have lived through four brilliant novels. What I always love best about Updike is his love for and adeptness at using language. Each sentence is crafted with care and for maximum impact. I particularly appreciated Updike's razor-like precision with which he skewers the substance abuse counselling field and uncovers the hypocrisy of having a newly clean addict become a counselor himself. What a hoot!
Rating:
Summary: So real it's scary
Review: Updike nails a person's life and thoughts about the world around him so precisely that when I read the Rabbit books, especially this one and "Rabbit is Rich, I have stop remind myself that it's fiction. I remember reading "Rabbit, Run" several years ago in a 20th century American literature class and thinking Rabbit was a big jerk. As I think the professor predicted, with a few years out in the real world, I don't see him quite that way anymore. The professor told us about the other books in the series and how much fun they were. His genuine interest proved to be right on! I have some good news for fans of the Rabbit series. I saw on the CNN website today that Updike will present "Rabbit Remembered," the comments of the character's family members, in novella form later this year. It will be fun to see how the survivors turned out!
Rating:
Summary: Rabbit at Rest, as well as the series
Review: Very memorable novel, written with grace by Mr. Updike, the man with a million ideas. Updike really knows how to sew together a novel that one can relate to. He discusses common experiences, common relationships, those that all of us have at least experienced once. Rabbit is a character who I grew to enjoy and hate at the same time. His story is one of hopelessness and pessimism and a flawed moral character, and he senses that the end is near, but does not take sincere steps to remedy the situation. He feels the awful dread that accompanies chronic disease, and it is interesting how he copes with it. Truthfully, I think Updike could have spent less time on the trivial; pages and pages are used to describe the most mundane topics, like television commercials. Overall, I enjoyed the novel and continue to reflect upon its content and message, even weeks after finishing it. For some reason I sort of miss Rabbit.
Rating:
Summary: Genious at Work
Review: When I read this book, I thought of the faults of all human beings but how we all strive to be as good as we can be.
Harry is a very average, and is challenged by a lot of imperfections. Updike is a writer who can take average situations and make them surreal. Harry's angst about his son who is hooked on cocaine, the nature of the car business, and his dull and boring marriage. While being angry at his son's addiction, Harry is addicted to food and the comfort commercial America promises him. As the Publisher's Weekly stated, its about the aborted American dream, or is Updike saying something deeper about American, about its meaningless materialism and about the things we value. This was the best of the Rabbit series. The writing about Harry's slow personal disintegration can be painful to read about, but even more painful, finding some parallels between my life and Harry's. Reading Updike is like entering a colorful dream world which also urges the soul to consider some grim realities. Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown Eyed Boy" p.s. Another Updike book I would recommend: "Roger's Version"
Rating:
Summary: Genious at Work
Review: When I read this book, I thought of the faults of all human beings but how we all strive to be as good as we can be.
Harry is a very average, and is challenged by a lot of imperfections. Updike is a writer who can take average situations and make them surreal. Harry's angst about his son who is hooked on cocaine, the nature of the car business, and his dull and boring marriage. While being angry at his son's addiction, Harry is addicted to food and the comfort commercial America promises him. As the Publisher's Weekly stated, its about the aborted American dream, or is Updike saying something deeper about American, about its meaningless materialism and about the things we value. This was the best of the Rabbit series. The writing about Harry's slow personal disintegration can be painful to read about, but even more painful, finding some parallels between my life and Harry's. Reading Updike is like entering a colorful dream world which also urges the soul to consider some grim realities. Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown Eyed Boy" p.s. Another Updike book I would recommend: "Roger's Version"
Rating:
Summary: A Fitting End to a Fine Series
Review: While reading "Rabbit at Rest" I repeatedly tried to imagine how this book would read had I not read its predecessors beforehand. Frankly, I don't think anyone can do this novel justice without reading the previous three novels first. Having done so, practically every sentence resonates with meaning as it recalls something from the first three books in the series. Without "Rabbit, Run", "Rabbit Redux" and "Rabbit is Rich" in your consciousness, "Rabbit at Rest" is little more than the story of a fat man dying. It's not the best of the four but it is the richest and fullest. This is not a book to pull off the shelf and dive into unprepared. Do yourself a favor, take a few weeks to devour the series one after another. By the time you get to this one, you'll want to search Updike out to convince him that Janice, Nelson and Pru are enough to sustain one more novel.
Rating:
Summary: Rabbit At Rest
Review: Whilst reading the corresponding reviews earlier for this novel I couln't help being envious that our American cousins get the likes of this genius book to study at school. For those who aren't familiar with Updike's work the rabbit series is a fine place to start. The four books in the series are not only eminently readable but also serve as a keen snapshot of 20th centuary American life. The protagonist 'Rabbit' although a very 'male' character is someone who anybody with a heart beating in their chest could identify with. At times fustratingly small-minded at others warm and poetic Rabbit stumbles through the story as we do through life, drawing sympathy from the reader. So that by this the fourth novel his worries are also our concerns and his victories fill us with jubilation. As other reviewers have mentioned, don't dive straight into this book on the back of it's award winning status. Take the time to discover the books in chronological order and welcome the final book as you would your dearest brother.
Rating:
Summary: Biting Social Commentary
Review: With the exception of Updike's golf stories, the "Rabbit" series, and his short stories, I have found his other novels a bit esoteric, abstract, and oblique. In fact, I remember starting 2-3 of these books, but I never finished any of them. But the Harry Angstrom series is a direct wallop to the collective jaw of the American reader With the fourth installment of the "Rabbit" series Updike proves that he is among the greatest American writers (along with Tom Wolfe, for example) producing fiction that oozes with sarcasm. In "Rabbit At Rest" Updike uses the sometimes sad life of cad Harry Angstrom as a metaphor for the aimless, immature, and irresponsible segment of Americans that refuses to grow up. Most of us would probably hate to admit it, but there is a little bit of Rabbit Angstrom in all of us.
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