Rabbit at Rest

infobox Book |
name = Rabbit At Rest
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = John Updike
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf
release_date = 1990
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 512 pp
isbn = ISBN 0394589521
preceded_by = Rabbit is Rich
followed_by =

"Rabbit at Rest" is a 1990 novel by John Updike. It is the fourth and final novel in a series beginning with "Rabbit, Run", "Rabbit Redux", and "Rabbit is Rich." There is also a related 2001 novella, "Rabbit Remembered". The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991, the second "Rabbit" novel to garner the award.

Plot summary

The novel is part of a series that follows the exploits of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom from 1960-1990, "Rabbit at Rest" focusing on the years 1988-1990. It finds Harry nearly forty years after his glory days as a high school basketball star in a mid-sized Pennsylvania city. Harry and his wife of 33 years, Janice, have retired to sunny Florida during the cold months, where Harry is depressed, bored, and dangerously overweight. Unable to stop nibbling corn chips and macadamia nuts, he finds himself near death after a heart attack. He is distracted from his worries by the acts of his drug-addicted son, Nelson, to whom Janice has very unwisely given control of the family business, a Pennsylvania Toyota dealership. Despite his unhappiness, he manages to take some comfort in his nine year old granddaughter, beautiful, athletic Judy. After Nelson comes back from rehab, and Janice begins work as a real estate agent, the family finds out that Harry has had a one night stand with Nelson's wife, Pru. This prompts Harry to escape to Florida. While hiding, Harry dies of heart disease shortly after winning a one-on-one basketball game with a local youth (echoing the opening of "Rabbit, Run" in which Harry impulsively joins a group of teenagers playing basketball).

Redux

"Rabbit Redux" led to a redux in popularity of the rare word "redux" and, in "Rabbit at Rest", Rabbit notices "a story...in the Sarasota paper a week or so ago, headlined Circus Redux. He hates that word, you see it everywhere, and he doesn't know how to pronounce it. Like arbitrageur and perestroika." ["Rabbit at Rest", p.50]

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/lifetimes/updike-rabbitatrest.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times review]
* [http://www.pprize.com/BookDetail.php?bk=73 Photos of the first edition of Rabbit At Rest]

References