| Rabbit, Run (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) |  | Author: John Updike
Publisher: Penguin Books
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  104 reviews
Format: Import
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
ISBN: 0141181443
EAN: 9780141181448
ASIN: 0141181443
Publication Date: December 7, 2000
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Turtleback - Rabbit Run | | • | Turtleback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run (G K Hall Perennial Bestseller Collection) | | • | Paperback - The Rabbit Novels Volume One: Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux | | • | Library Binding - Rabbit Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Leather Bound - Rabbit, Run | | • | Paperback - RABBIT, RUN | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit Run | | • | School & Library Binding - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Unknown Binding - Rabbit, run | | • | Paperback - Rabbit, Run |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 99 more reviews...
 A response to On The Road? November 4, 2008
I've been trying to decide what to include in this review in terms of why this book is one of my least favorites. Maybe it is because it wallows in what Thoreau mocked as "lives of quiet desperation." Maybe because it tries to drain all the beauty, excitement, and hope out of life. Maybe because it claims to be, according to the author, a response to On The Road which, whatever its flaws has, a vital positive energy sparkling in it. The difference is that Kerouac actually WENT on the road and writes largely from personal experience with one of the most distinctive voices in American literature, whereas this book piles up quant intellectual metaphors about insignificant details in the lives of characters in situations utterly devoid of any redeeming value. This is just a cheap armchair attempt to spray-paint a thick coat of weakness and pity over human nature. I don't think reducing people and situations to their lowest potential is a noble attempt at literary realism... it's just pathetic. The message of the book as a whole is that no substantial goodness is possible in life, or to use the vernacular- life sucks. I disagree. The only thing that sucks is Updike's portrayal of life! If, however, you're all gung-ho about original sin, get several copies and build an altar to self-pity.
Dull as dishwater, pretentious, unimaginative, and utterly boring September 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This novel brought tears to my eyes....of boredom and disgust !
I can't believe that they have been touting this book as one of the greatest of American literature. It is about a twenty-something guy who is married with a son. He used to be a star basketball player and now, caught in a love-hate marriage and a dead-end job, the banality and drabness of his life is getting to him.
Interesting so far, isn't it ? But Updike makes a mess of a promising plot. Here is what happens....our hero decides to run away from his family, his job, his friends, everything......he gets into the car and intends to drive someplace far away. Ah, one thinks....a great American road trip is in order.....but no such luck. He returns to his town the same night, settles down with a prostitute, and when his wife is about to deliver a baby, goes back to her, again gets tired of her, goes back to the prostitute but is not sure if he should abandon his wife, and runs again.
Sounds stupid ? It is.
And the writing is tortuously slow and maddeningly muddy. It seems that Updike wrote this novel to please his literature teachers who would prefer form over substance. He writes these long paragraphs without punctuation apparently trying to describe and mirror the random thoughts of his characters....trying to evoke a stream-of-consciousness feel about these passages but fails miserably. Such passages only make the book even more tedious and ambiguous.
Here is an example of what has been called Updike's 'Crystal-clear prose:'
"And further inside, so ghostly it comes to him last, hangs a jagged cloud, the star of an explosion, whose center is uncertain in refraction but whose arms fly from the core of pallor as straight as long eraser-marks diagonally into all planes of the cube."
And if you guys want an example of Updike's cute punctuation, here are the last few words of the novel:
"....he runs. Ah: runs. Runs."
Updike, like all bad literary-wannabe authors, keep describing the weather, the food, the scenery with great, tear-inducing meticulousness but doesn't develop his stereotypical characters even one bit during the course of the book.
This garbage is not worth anybody's time and is a good example of why such so-called literature doesn't interest the masses. This is pretentious writing without even the slightest hint of talent or creativity. Two thumbs-down !
 Hopping like a Rabbit August 9, 2008
To keep this as short as possible; I picked up the book because it won a Pulitzer prize, and the good reviews it had. I was in a period of reading a lot of non-fiction, and wanted to take a break with some fiction.
The rating of 3 stars is because it was not good or bad, my reaction was apathy. I was a bit disappointed with the structure and format. That lack of actual chapters was a bit boring.
The book seemed to drag on, had there been less unnecessary detail, it would have gotten a better review. Instead I feel I read much more about a particular thing than I needed to. I loved the way John Updike expressed the detail, but I think he went overboard in some cases. Especially since there is no real action in the book and are only a few main events that happen.
I'm not sure I would particularly recommend the book to somebody. I will mention it and tell them my lack of reaction to it. The characters can be interesting, and in some aspects I wish I could hear more about them. I do not think I will pick up the other Rabbit books anytime soon though.
Some of it can be a bit detailed about sex, if that is of concern to anybody. I had to chuckle at some of the euphemisms used.
If you want a book where the main character is indecisive, escapes, but does not really move away or change, then this book would be of interest. Every character has their annoying qualities, even Rabbit. Surprisingly my favorite character was the minister. There is some decent deep thought play that is spoken but never really discussed from him. Especially for the time period.
 A sophisticated but playful Rabbit we have! July 20, 2008
In the beginning, I was sort of depressed. the subject matter, the darkly setting, uneasy texture. However, I liked to read gradually. I loved it. And the main character of the novel is portrayed with sophisticatedly. A complex personality but somewhat amusing and certainly playful. I look forward to reading next Rabbit novels!
wishing for a zero-stars option May 15, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book 5 years ago, learned to hate John Updike, and haven't picked up a book of his since. (Looking at the book on amazon and some of the other one-star reviews, maybe I should give his more recent works a shot, but this one has kept me angry for a long time.) Today, I started what seems like it will be a bad book that described "plump, round buttocks," and naturally thought again of Updike and how much I had hated his description of women. I'm not quite motivated enough to diss him to go and check out another copy from the library to search for the phrases that I hated the most (white mounds of flesh..), but I was delighted to see that I was not alone in my disdain for this novel and this author (at least at this phase of his writing..), and I am pleased to add another single-star (regrettably not zero-star) review to his depressingly high pile of praise.
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