Rabbit at Rest

Rabbit at Rest

By John Updike

John Updike's magnum opus series - Rabbit Angstrom - is one of those works that should be read in high schools but isn't for a lot of different reasons. Updike doesn't have the tragedy of a Hemingway or the shyness of a Salinger. He's undoubtedly a modern canonical author, but his work doesn't fit in the current trend in the literary world. With the opening of the canon, most modern authors that have been added - at least to school book lists -are from underrepresented minority groups. Not that these books aren't worthy, but it leaves out excellent authors like Updike. I'd be willing to trade some Shakespeare in for the more relevant Updike.

Rabbit at Rest is the final volume of the four-book series. The novels follow former-high-school basketball star Rabbit Angstrom as he moves through the 50's , 60's, 70's and 80's, each book taking one decade. Rabbit is a sort of everyman, a product of his times. With the shift of American society, Rabbit shifts too.

Rabbit at Rest takes place in the 80's, with the end of Reagan administration and Bush Senior taking office. Rabbit finally starts feeling like a relic. He's in his 50's and having serious heart problems. His illness and decline is paired with what he sees as the same decline of America. AIDS and the drug war are in the news, and he fears in his own family. His son Nelson is now an adult (sorta) and has taken over Springer Motors - Rabbit's wife's inherited car lot. Rabbit at Rest is largely about Rabbit and Nelson's relationship. All the trauma Rabbit has visited upon his son comes to the forefront as Nelson struggles with drug addiction while trying to raise a family and run a business - none of which he does very well.

Concluding a series like Updike's must be a difficult job. Philip Roth's Exit Ghost (also reviewed on this blog) did the same thing, and I think did it better. Updike's ending is clean, whereas Roth's is frayed. Rabbit's heart problems are neater and easier to deal with that Nathan Zuckerman's prostate cancer. Updike gives a sanitized version of decay, his protagonist doesn't suffer from impotence like Roth's, but instead deals with his continuing libido - and not very well.

Although the final installment of the Rabbit series is my least favorite of the four, it gives the reader a depiction of the 80's in suburban America, instead of the high-flying Wall Street version that's usually portrayed. It's a strong and solid novel that ends one of the better modern narratives, something people who lived it will remember, and those of us who didn't can imagine.