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Rabbit, Run | 
 enlarge | Author: John Updike
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $0.94
You Save: $14.01 (94%)
New (39) Used (55) Collectible (2) from $0.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  103 reviews
Sales Rank: 29948
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0449911659
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780449911655
ASIN: 0449911659
Publication Date: August 27, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - RABBIT, RUN | | • | Unknown Binding - Rabbit, Run (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) | | • | Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit Run | | • | Mass Market Paperback - Rabbit, Run | | • | Turtleback - Rabbit Run | | • | Turtleback - Rabbit, Run | | • | School & Library Binding - Rabbit, Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run (G K Hall Perennial Bestseller Collection) | | • | Hardcover - Rabbit, Run | | • | Paperback - The Rabbit Novels Volume One: Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Audio Cassette - Rabbit Run | | • | Leather Bound - Rabbit, Run | | • | Unknown Binding - Rabbit, run | | • | Paperback - Rabbit, Run |
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Product Description
Harry Angstrom was a star basketball player in high school and that was the best time of his life. Now in his mid-20s, his work is unfulfilling, his marriage is moribund, and he tries to find happiness with another woman. But happiness is more elusive than a medal, and Harry must continue to run--from his wife, his life, and from himself, until he reaches the end of the road and has to turn back....
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| Customer Reviews: Read 98 more reviews...
 Dull as dishwater, pretentious, unimaginative, and utterly boring September 9, 2008
1 out of 2 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 3 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.
puzzling March 14, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
There is no doubt that the author's writing is poignant and insightful. The behaviors of protagonist clearly convey the dilemmas, challenges and impulses of youth. The story itself was not very interesting to me, however, the protagonist's internal thought process was. My only problem, however, is that the thoughts read more of the author, meaning a sophisticated, analytical intellectual, and not of the character. It felf as if watching a movie with a director's commentary.
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