Rabbit, Run (spoilers if you're still reading!)

I just finished Rabbit, Run about an hour ago. I read the first half of the book quite slowly, struggling at times to make myself keep going. I picked up the book this afternoon and read the last half of the book in one sitting. I was partly fueled by wanting to finish the book by the end of February, but at some point I found that I couldn't put it down. In the end, I really liked this book.

What I liked:

the characters Like John said, the supporting characters in this book were pretty boss. They were all so deeply flawed, but somehow very likable. I especially liked Ruth and Mr. Springer. All of the characters were incredibly well developed. The scene where Rabbit leaves Janice for the second time and she comes totally undone was so incredible I had to read it a few times.

At the beginning of the book I thought I was really going to like Rabbit, and I went back and forth pretty frequently throughout the book. I hated when he made Ruth give him a blow j, it was so insanely degrading I could hardly believe it. It was shocking the way he talked about Janice. Dude does not know how to treat women. There were parts, though, where he was so tender and kind. Two specific glimmers of him being a good human being were when he took off his shoes while walking through the park with Ruth, and when his daughter was born. He seemed way more confused than evil, and more than anything he seemed really human. I loved how flawed all of the characters were.

the prose (most of the time) Again I agree that sometimes his sentences and paragraphs were just too damn long. I would be reading a two page paragraph and be like, am I seriously still reading a bunch of run-ons about this random park? At spots I got bored with the wordiness. But overall I really liked how much detail Updike paid to everything. I liked scenes like the one where Eccles picks Rabbit up on the street and drives him back to Ruth's place. It was a simple thing, but Updike made it more significant with such thorough descriptions of the entire event from the scenery, right down to what the characters were thinking.

The structure was interesting, as there were no chapters, and very few places where there was even a tangible break. I felt like each section flowed so well into the next, that even though it was slow at times, the book as a whole was so easy for me to just keep on reading. The book started coming together for me when he went back to his wife when she had the baby. It almost seemed like a different book after that point. His character was changing, and the entire pace of the book just really picked up for me.

miscellaneous First off I was totally shocked when the baby drowned. I had been feeling so optimistic about Rabbit ever since he went back to his wife, and had suddenly become emotionally invested in the well-being of these people. Things seemed to be going so well. It seriously depressed me. I guess most of all I didn't dislike Rabbit because he left his wife, or because he didn't stay with Ruth. My thoughts on our friend Harry were really hit on the head when he is in the Springer's house and there is that line about "the good way versus the right way." It was such a different world back when this story took place. It wasn't wrong for women to drink when they were pregnant, and it was seriously wrong to leave your wife. Is it good to drink while you are pregs? No. But neither I would argue strongly is it good to stay in a marriage that isn't working. Of course there are much better ways to leave said relationship. I really love reading about this time period.

I'm glad he kept going in the end.

Finished the book. Totally glad I did.

Rabbit, Run

Ok so I'm like 3/4 done with Rabbit, Run.

REASONS WHY I MAY NOT FINISH THE BOOK

1. Run-on sentences. John Updike's prose is for the most part very cool and evocative, but I hate it when ANY writer puts in gigantic paragraphs filled with super long descriptive sentences. I like my poetry and prose to be separate entities.

2. The protagonist is a gigantic dick. Here come some spoilers, so be careful if you read on. I've had a very hard time identifying at all with Rabbit. He bails on his wife and 2-year-old son without a thought or even trying to work things out. He attempts to carry out some crazy dream about going down South, fails, comes back to town, and moves in with some chick he meets on a blind double date. Knocks her up. Forces her to go down on him to get even with her in some way. Slaps a preacher's wife on the ass. Etc. Etc. I'm hoping that all this is building to some kind of dramatic denouement where he mans up and figures his shit out, but since I'm only 3/4 of the way through, right now I think Rabbit is a total ass.

REASONS WHY I MAY JUST POWER THROUGH

1. Supporting cast. I really like the character of Eccles the preacher, and of the old lady that Rabbit gardens for whose name I forget. Eccles's personality is very interesting to me, how he's kind of sarcastic, kind of bitter, but at the same time he's the most powerful force for good in the whole book. I also like the tension between him and his wife over his job. I like how she resents his congregation for being, in her view, a bunch of whining incompetents, as opposed to some sanctimonious, stereotypical old church lady. I think they're the best characters in the book.

2. Psychology. I enjoy how most of the book takes place inside the characters' heads. I like having a front row seat for their motivations, internal debates, insecurities, etc. Every character is fully fleshed out with a strong personality, which I think has a lot to do with the way we're privy to the characters' inner thoughts.

3. It will bother me if I don't finish it. I hate not finishing books. It'll bug me.

I found A Sand County Almanac

I've started reading it and am finding it very enjoyable so far. I like books with pictures. It soothes my raging testosterone-laden blood.

Yeah, I can't find Rabbit, Run anywhere. The Florida Department of Education isn't helping much either, with their damn propaganda.

This is in no way a reflection of my impressive masculinity

OK Men, I have a quick non Rabbit, Run related request, really!

How do you change the settings on the blog so that you are updated via e-mail when someone posts? I've spent a good amount of work time trying to figure it out, and I can't. Not that this doesn't make me a man, in fact it makes me MORE of a man because I only know how to do two things: smash things and sex things. Everything else is for the lady-boys.

Rabbit, Run is also apparently Slate's book club book this month:

http://www.slate.com/id/2211521/

i have having the dickens of a time finding rabbit, run anywhere. i'm about to break down and get it from amazon. all copies are taken at the library and i saw no copies at the bookstore. what the dickens!