Writers try to express their meaning not just by their choice of words, but the way they’re used. Raymond Carver wrote about the simple life using simple words and simple structure. Paul Auster’s fiction tends to contain multiple layers, so his sentences tend to drag on, too. As for John Updike, any...
3/9 - Right, so Updike is NOT for me, that's clear. I found Rabbit's views and comments on the world depressing and anger-inducing (not rage-inducing because I couldn't raise enough sympathy for the victims of his contempt to get that upset about what he thought of them) and couldn't continue readin...
I was not in love with this book. There are quite a few good things about it, but in the end its hero Robert Angstrom is not that interesting or appealing to me. The prose is good. It reads easily and well. It's an examination of lower middle class America in the 50's, its meaninglessness, anxie...
The title is a good summation of the character and plot. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom runs: runs out on his heavily pregnant wife and two-year old son, runs to the arms of a prostitute, runs into the minister who invites him to play golf. (When Rabbit shows up at the minister's house, he slaps the ass of...
Dangit, I was all ready to write a scathing review, full of loathing and disgust. I was actually looking forward to it - there are so many things that pissed me off, boredom not withstanding. Lo, the book turned in the last minute and wrested a grudging respect from me. Gosh, i hate it when that hap...
Rabbit's a really nuanced character. He's such a dipshit, and he's so unaware of what a dipshit he is.Authors spend so much time trying to get inside the heads of their characters, right? To figure out how they work. And here's Updike setting himself an incredibly difficult challenge: he has to get ...
Fuck you, Harry Angstrom.Look, I get it; you want more lay-ups, and more lays, like you had in your virile high-school glory days. You want the fans screaming for another basket, the coach screaming that you're the greatest, and not your lobotomized TV-addict-cum-lush wife screaming at you to go pic...
Just another example of what happens a lot when you try to read broadly: you can understand the backdrop, the choice of style, the development of the story, appreciate an author's talent and still doggedly not like a book. See you later, Angstrom. Won't be chasing after you in the foreseeable future...
My husband brought this home from the library because it is one of those books that we are supposed to have read. He started it and then put it down with the complaint that it was too descriptive. I picked it up and after the first 20 pages was entranced. I agree that Updike spends too much on de...
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