New Essays on Rabbit Run

The hero of John Updike's most popular and critically acclaimed novel is a middle-class American who isn't 'especially beautiful or bright or urban.' The essays in this collection examine the technical mastery and thematic range that make this work an enduring achievement in modern American fiction.

Still John Updike's most popular and critically acclaimed novel, Rabbit Run introduced the character of Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one of those middle-class Americans who, in Updike's words, aren't 'especially beautiful or bright or urban' but about whom there is a lot worth saying. The fallible hero struggles with his own sexuality, his religious feelings, the difficulties of being a son and father, and with the changes in American society that seem to suffocate him. Updike's writing is charged with narrative energy and pictorial accuracy that illuminate the present moment; it evokes the tension between the drab compromises we are forced to make with age and the religious mystery that sustains us. Written by a distinguished group of international scholars, these essays examine both the technical mastery and thematic range that make Updike's work one of the most significant achievements in modern American fiction and one that continues to provoke fresh critical insight.