Rating: 
Summary: A Life Uncommon
Review: I find it impossible to rate the four Rabbit Angstrom books--Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; and Rabbit at Rest--individually, so now that I have finished reading them, I am going to review all four together. If you don't like it, too bad.
Some authors offer us the "slice of life" in a novel, but with the four Rabbit books, Updike gives us the entire pie by following Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom through four decades, starting in 1959 with "Rabbit, Run" and ending in 1989 with "Rabbit at Rest", the last two in the series each winning a Pulitzer and rightfully so.
"Rabbit, Run" took me two false starts before I finally got all the way through it. It was only after reading some of Updike's other books that I was prepared for this one, because Rabbit, Run is not a very happy book, with no real redemption or epiphanies at the end like many other novels. In this one, Rabbit runs out on his pregnant wife Janice and 2-year-old son Nelson only to have an affair with another woman (Ruth), who he then gets pregnant before returning to Janice for the birth of their second child, who Janice (while drinking, perhaps "post-partem depression" is what they'd call it now) accidentally drowns. This one I think is th weakest of the series as the characters hadn't really come into their own yet and neither really had the author. Rabbit through that book always seems like a whiny jerk while Janice is a drunken slob and if things had stayed that way, I don't think we'd have four books. But it's the foundation for a lot of better things to come. (Three stars)
With "Rabbit Redux" 10 years later, Rabbit has matured and taken a job at the printing press where his father works. He and Janice have a little house in a development and are sort of treading water in a blue-collar existence. This time it's Janice who runs out on Harry and Nelson to hook up with a used car salesman named Charlie. In response, Harry takes in a runaway named Jill and her "friend" (drug dealer really) Skeeter, who tries to enlighten Rabbit on civil rights and his view of the world. As Jill sinks deeper into addiction thanks to Skeeter, Rabbit has an affair with Janice's best friend Peggy. During this, Jill and Skeeter burn down Rabbit's house with Jill being killed in the fire. Because of heart trouble, Charlie doesn't want to stay with Janice and so she and Rabbit after the fire reluctantly get back together. This second part was I think the transitional book, where Rabbit became more of a responsible adult (though still prone to selfish bouts) and someone readers could look at as a more "heroic" figure. Janice also shows more personality through this book. (Four Stars)
"Rabbit is Rich" is probably my favorite in the series. It takes place another 10 years later in 1979. Rabbit has taken over the Toyota dealership established by Janice's deceased father. This leads to quite a financial windfall for Rabbit, as the title suggests. He and Janice spent quite a bit of time at the country club with their new friends, but still live with Janice's mother in her house. Nelson, away at Kent State, has grown froma troubled teen into a troubled young adult. He has impregnated a secretary at the school named Teresa (nicknamed Pru)--like father like son--and they get married. Nelson tries to work with Harry at the lot, but (again, like father like son) can't find his niche there. On vacation in the Caribbean (in part to give Nelson some breathing space at the lot), Harry and Janice and their friends from the country club engage in a little wife-swapping. Harry wants the wife of his best friend, but instead winds up with Thelma, the wife of his long-time rival Ronnie. The vacation is interrupted with news that Nelson is gone and they return home to find out that he's returned to school. Harry and Janice buy their own house, leaving the other for Nelson and Pru to live in after he returns from school. This book, while you could say is the most boring of the series in that no one dies and there are no big affairs, is also Rabbit at his most "heroic", because while still selfish the sins he commits aren't quite as bad. The wife-swapping was a mutual agreement--Janice participated as well--so it's not really an affair. What I liked about "Rabbit is Rich" is that by lacking the big plot twists of the others, it presents more a picture of real American life and even 25 years later is not so different from my family. It's by this point that I think Updike has really got to know the characters to make them even better and his skills as an author have grown as well. (Five stars)
"Rabbit at Rest" concludes the series starting in 1988. Harry (now 56) and Janice are "snowbirds" who travel to Florida to spend winters there while Nelson runs the car dealership. Like many Americans, years of poor eating and lack of exercise are catching up with Rabbit, leading to heart trouble that culminates in a heart attack during a sailing expedition with his granddaughter Judy. Rabbit recovers and back in Pennsylvania gets an angioplasty when he should have gone for a full bypass. It's during this time that Rabbit learns Nelson is hooked on coke and imbezzling money from the dealership along with the company's accountant, who is dying of AIDS and using the money to buy nonapproved medication. Nelson is forced into rehab, Harry takes over the dealership, and Janice goes to school to become a realtor. At one point while Nelson is away, Harry and Pru have a one-night stand. Toyota pulls the plug on the dealership, Nelson comes back as a Born Again Christian, and Harry is left alone for long stretches while Janice goes to school. Now you'd think Harry would be trying to change his life after the near-death experience, but you'd be wrong--he still doesn't really exercise and has a penchant to cram his mouth with salty snacks. In the end, when Janice finds out about Harry and Pru's encounter, she says she'll never forgive him. In response, Harry goes down to Florida early, where he winds up overexerting himself on a basketball court. Enough. This final installment is a step back from "Rabbit is Rich" and incorporates more of the big plot twists. I thought the coke and AIDS were the kind of stereotypical things anyone writing a book about the '80s would work in--if Updike would have worked in some "Wall Street"-type financial stuff it would be the perfect '80s hat trick--so I was a little disappointed. And I had to groan when the Japanese Toyota executive comes onto the scene with his dialogue peppered with "l"s replaced by "r"s. Shameless. A master author like Updike should not have to stoop to such a low-brow device. But what I really respect with this book is Updike did not turn it into a sappy tear-jerker where Rabbit "comes to terms" with death and makes peace with everyone in his family. There is no redemption for Rabbit, even in death. (Four Stars)
People have devoted whole books on the subject of what these books are "about" and what they mean to us and such. What I think is Rabbit is a classic character because he is so real, with some virtues and some vices. He is selfish, but so are Nelson and Janice and you and I. Some of the things he does are far worse than many of us will ever do, but we're all at least a little selfish. But like most of us, Rabbit is also able to make sacrifices for the greater good of his son and marriage, although reluctantly.
In the end, the Rabbit novels are a portrait of American life through four decades. Harry is not really an "Everyman" but he's the most human character I've read in a while and most of us can probably see there's a little Rabbit in all of us if we care to look. Read all four of the novels to get the complete Rabbit saga and I guarantee your perception of life will never be the same.
Rating: 
Summary: So Long Rabbit
Review: I hate to be a curmudgeon when it comes to Pulitzer Prize winners and great writers like John Updike, but this final installment featuring Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom has flaws that took away my enjoyment of the book. Clearly Updike uses the characters frequently as mouthpieces to expound on society. Unfortunately, a lot of times it seems very contrived, especially when coming from characters other than Harry. The story itself is interesting enough, but meanders and is too long. He could have written the same story in half the number of pages. The best part about the book is the juxtaposition of Harry's self-righteous anger at his son's addiction-when he himself is addict to food and has little, if any, will power to resist his own temptations. Overall, a qualified thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: They grow up and they never change
Review: In this book, the Angstroms are semi-retired and living in Florida. Rabbit has a heart condition and he's not doing anything to improve his health. His son Nelson has grown into a wreck of an adult, to which Harry and his wife deserve the lion share of the blame. The parents are so old and respectable now, you forget what they put their son through, until he reminds them. You really want to root for Harry to overcome all of the obstacles he faces, like you root for charming outlaws to outrun the posse. You sense that Zeus and the Gods are sitting on Mt. Olympus using Harry Angstrom as their plaything. Despite the fact that Updike is given literature status (this book won the Pulitzer), it's very easy to get into. This isn't long and arduous James Joyce prose, but an easy to follow modern day story that will make you think. The series is either a scathing indictment of latter 20th Century middle-class America that invents their own agony or it's just Updike's view of how normal people live. Whichever, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys serious fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Rabbit comes full circle
Review: In this final book in the Rabbit quartet, Harry Angstrom hits his fifties. Despite his wealth and condo in Florida, his life has not become comfortable. Family turmoils continue, with Nelson behaving strangely, his daughter-in-law sending romantic signals, his wife defending their son's weaknesses while becoming more independent of Rabbit as she enters the working world.
Throughout the book, Rabbit reflects on his age and his mortality, graphically portraying the realities and fears of late middle age in a way that brings the reader, regardless of age or sex, vividly into the life and thoughts of an aging man.
Continuing a gradual increase in literary quality throughout the quartet, this is a powerful novel. Occasionally slowed by overly long passages or excessive description, it does an excellent job of integrating the small details of life with Rabbit's larger reflections and philosophical outlooks. Updike is especially talented at portraying the hypocrisies, tensions, idiosyncrasies, and failures in communication, so common in life. Updike shows us what it is to be human, what it means to live, and how it's possible to run incessantly, without ever arriving anywhere.
This book can stand on its own, but is most fulfilling read as the fourth book in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but Rabbit Run was Better
Review: Not quite as captivating as "Rabbit Run" but quite excellently written; I guess writing about somebody's slow demise just doesn't lend itself to intense interest, not like the living foibles of a character's life, as you find in "Run." Updike is a master of prose and this is extremely well researched. Very few living people can write fiction as well.
Rating:
Summary: R.I.P. Rabbit
Review: The last novel in John Updike's famous tetralogy finds that life is finally winding down for Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, as America heads into 1989 with a new President and an ever-evolving set of cultural icons and reference points. After three decades of making mistakes -- both personal and professional -- and working like a dog, Harry is ready for retirement from his position as sales manager of the Toyota dealership his wife Janice inherited from her parents, and he and Janice are dividing their time between their native Brewer, Pennsylvania, and their new condo in Florida. Now fifty-five, Harry is besieged by the deleterious effects of aging and careless eating. Despite his concern for the burning pains in his chest and his excessive weight, he can't stop snacking on junk food, and the consequences are nasty: He has a mild heart attack while taking his granddaughter Judy sailing and, even after having an angioplasty, defies his doctor's advice to change his diet. The man has never been able to control his insatiability, and we, the readers, wait patiently for the crash and burn. However, it is Harry's son Nelson who is going through the worst travails. Having been left in charge of the car dealership and, like his father, never one for self-discipline, he has developed a cocaine habit which he finances partly by siphoning profits from the business and which makes him a danger to his wife Pru and their two children not to mention the entire Angstrom family fortune. It is typical of Harry's impudence that his extramarital sexual activity, a subject of every Rabbit novel, this time extends to his daughter-in-law, while Nelson is trying to clean himself up at a treatment center. Updike has always fashioned Harry and Janice as a married representation of all the combined good and bad of the national ethic, a sort of warped suburban American Gothic. At the end of the decade in which AIDS entered the public conscience and S & L scandals wracked the economy, there is something wistful about Harry's participation in a Fourth of July parade dressed as Uncle Sam, a symbol of post-Reagan America -- proud, overbearing, bloated, dying. Harry as a character hasn't changed much since "Rabbit is Rich," but his immutability is part of his appeal. His peculiar thoughts on the practical aspects of mundane things -- a tour guide's chirpy attitude, the sexual implications of a waitress's hairstyle, the idiosyncrasies of television news anchors -- are always illuminating. The novel is a vehicle for Updike's flowing commentary, delivered in his inimitably witty prose, on pop culture as it existed in 1989, which is still recent enough for the memories to flicker in all their pastel-highlighted tackiness.
Rating:
Summary: What 5 stars are for
Review: This book is greatness. It is what five stars are for. Obviously, being the last of the Rabbit series, it is about our hero's demise. There's very little I can say that won't "spoil the ending" for you. The ending is really touching. The author ties it all together. He even closes a loose end about his "other" daughter, letting us know that the girl he met at the car lot, and making a reprise at the hospital, is in fact his own biological daughter. He goes the way he should go. And his wife and son react just right. If you don't appreciate this book, it isn't because there is something lacking in the book, it is because there's something lacking in you. Sorry, but you just missed it.
Rating:
Summary: What 5 stars are for
Review: This book is greatness. It is what five stars are for. Obviously, being the last of the Rabbit series, it is about our hero's demise. There's very little I can say that won't "spoil the ending" for you. The ending is really touching. The author ties it all together. He even closes a loose end about his "other" daughter, letting us know that the girl he met at the car lot, and making a reprise at the hospital, is in fact his own biological daughter. He goes the way he should go. And his wife and son react just right. If you don't appreciate this book, it isn't because there is something lacking in the book, it is because there's something lacking in you. Sorry, but you just missed it.
Rating:
Summary: A satisfying final installment of the Rabbit books
Review: This book is the final volume in the four-novel saga of Harry (Rabbit) Angstrom, so you know it is going to tie up some loose ends, and it does, some neatly and some not-so-neatly. As a novel, it has the same high-quality writing as the other three, a credit to Updike's ability to maintain his creative energy over the years. As the final installment of the Rabbit cycle, it fits well into the overall story. Rabbit in his mid-fifties still struggles with the same character flaws he had as a young man, but he has also mellowed with age, making him if not more likeable at least more sympathetic. He does a lot of reflecting on the course of his life, and you get to understand how he feels about some to the things he did in previous novels, how he feels about his wife, children, and grandchildren, about living in Mt. Judge/Brewer all his life. This novel rounds out his character. He finally stops being so driven and is able to stand and absorb the good and the bad in his life. I absolutely recommend this book to those who have read any of the other Rabbit books. It also works as a stand-alone novel, but I think the story is so much richer in the context of the previous books.
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.
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