Rabbit Is Rich (Rabbit Angstrom #3) by John Updike.

"Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom finally feels settled, successful and steady in life. He's married, is a member of the Flying Eagle Country Club and is the head Sales Associate at Springer Motors. He's more or less content but that all changes when Nelson, his son, returns home from College for Summer Break and drops a bombshell. Now Rabbit has to decide how to deal with the consequences and attempt to ignore his first instinct, which is, of course, to run away when things get tough."

3 Stars

Pros: With each novel, about ten years has passed, so it's been an interesting way to see how Rabbit and his family has or hasn't changed and how the world around them has.

Cons: Rabbit Angstrom is now bordering on creepy, lecherous old man, all he seems to think about is sex/The way Janice, Nelson and Rabbit speak to each other, it's one argument or snide remark after the other. It certainly doesn't make me think of a content, happy family/The things Rabbit does, I spent most of this book and the two preceding it sighing and shaking my head. His lack of common sense is truly astounding.

Full Review:

With the tumultuous happenings of Rabbit, Run and Rabbit, Redux, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is now living the dream. He's the chief sales representative at Springer Motors, the car dealership his now deceased father in law ran. He's reconciled, more or less, with his wife Janice and is now living with her and her mother in law. He seems content with life, or as content as Rabbit gets.

But when his son, Nelson, who's been attending Kent State, returns home for the Summer with a girl, Melanie, Rabbit's afraid that this life he's carefully constructed for himself will all come crashing down. Nelson comes with a chip the size of Texas on his shoulder and it's one scathing argument after another with Harry. The Summer goes by and Melanie returns to Kent but Nelson does not. Instead, a new woman, Pru arrives.

She's Nelson's girlfriend and she's pregnant.

Rabbit, of course, gets by, in his awkward, snide, bumbling way and at the end, he more or less has everything he wants but, again, you get the general sense that he's just never quite happy. What will it take to make Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom happy? I have a feeling that's an impossible question. But perhaps we'll find out the final book in the series, Rabbit At Rest, which I'll be reading soon.

Comments

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