Rabbit, Run Audiobook By John Updike cover art

Rabbit, Run

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Rabbit, Run

By: John Updike
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
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Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his - or any other - generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is 26 years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty - even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness, and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation as straight as a ruler’s edge.

©1996 John Updike (P)2008 Random House Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Metaphysical & Visionary Psychological

Critic reviews

"Brilliant and poignant...By his compassion, clarity of insight and crystal-bright prose, he makes Rabbit's sorrow his and our own." ( The Washington Post)

“A lacerating story of loss and of seeking, written in prose that is charged with emotion but is always held under impeccable control.” (Kansas City Star)
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I like the story, despite it having the most unlikable main character I think I’ve ever read. The quality of the writing is quite good, classic John Updike, but the pace drags in parts. I would’ve liked the listening experience far more with a different narrator; this narrator reads dialogue with sort of a weird false cheeriness in every voice.

Strange story read by a strange narrator

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This is always some of the best American writing. Updike is so smart, so beautiful and honest. I first read Rabbit nearly 30 years ago and so wonderful to meet Rabbit, Janice and Ruth again. They are familiar old friends.

The narration was beautifully balanced and sensitive.

Its Updike..

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As a man, I was very much able to identify with many of the main characters attributes and flaws. Updike does a magnificant job of turning a character who you should hate for his acts into one who you cannot help but love! Stick with this book as it starts a bit slow, but draws you in through its magnetic main character.

Stick with it

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Updike's Rabbit Run is still a hit for me. The book captures the angst in every day life's struggles and the feeling of being trapped in one's role in life back in the 1960's. Wonderful writing.

Angstrom Angst

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I cant begin to explain how good this book is.
The story, the drama, the back stories. I loved it.

Great Read

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Poorly narrated but a masterpiece nonetheless. Rabbit is the young, spoiled USA, full of vitality but lacking self-criticism, that is about to be launched on a wild ride through history. The series includes several of the best American novels ever.

Brilliant Americana

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"Rabbit, Run" begins the "tetralogy" of books about Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. The writing is so descriptive, and Updike will often go off on *almost* stream of consciousness thoughts (more so in the later novels it seems) which I find myself particularly attracted to. The narration by Arthur Morey gets better with each book (and with each listen really). If I hear Morey on another title, it's hard for me to disconnect him from this series. "Rabbit, Run" may start off slow for some people, but if you stick with it, and move to "Rabbit Redux" I think you will be "hooked" and find the journey well worth the time. These books are American classics/treasures.

Masterwork

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This may have been the best story that I have ever listened to, but I kind of wish that I never heard of it.

True.

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This book reminded me of the Ginger Man, written about the same time period, and like so many other post-WWII literary works, it centers on male angst in the era of the grey flannel suit. The male characters are so awful the book made me very glad I came of age in the 1980s and did not have to suffer through this time period. All of the characters seem stuck and act out accordingly but through careful character development, I was able to have some empathy for each of them. If anyone is interested in cultural history, this provides an excellent glimpse into the social realities of the early 1960s. I am not sure if I will listen to book 2 Rabbit Redux just yet as I need a break from unlikeable male literary characters.

Typical post-WWII male angst

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This is the first book in a series of four novels. While this isn't a favorite novel of mine, Updike does enough in this first installment to cause me to pick up Book 2 at some point in the future. Since this is the first book in a series, I would only recommend it to those who are interested in the series as a whole. It is a good listen, but not a great one. However, Updike won two Pultizer Prizes for his later works in this series, so maybe the next books improve on this already above average recording. The narrator is the perfect choice for a book like this.

Overall rating: 4.09

4.09 stars........Updike keeps it real

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