The first book in his award-winning "Rabbit" series, John Updike's "Rabbit, Run" contains an afterword by the author in "Penguin Modern Classics". It's 1959 and Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, one time high school sports superstar, is going nowhere. At twenty-six he is trapped in a second-rate existence - stuck with a fragile, alcoholic wife, a house full of overflowing ashtrays and discarded glasses, a young son and a futile job. With no way to fix things, he resolves to flee from his family and his home in Pennsylvania, beginning a thousand-mile journey that he hopes will free him from his mediocre life. Because, as he knows only too well, 'after you've been first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick out of being second-rate'. John Updike (1932-2009) was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year at Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of staff at "The New Yorker". Updike was the author of twenty-one novels as well as numerous collections of short stories, poems and criticism, and is one of only three authors to win more than one Pulitzer Prize. His most famous works are the Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom series, all of which are published in "Penguin Modern Classics": "Rabbit, Run" (1960), "Rabbit Redux" (1971), "Rabbit is Rich" (1981) and "Rabbit at Rest" (1990). If you enjoyed "Rabbit, Run", you might like Don DeLillo's "Americana", also available in "Penguin Modern Classics". "It is sexy, in bad taste, violent and basically cynical. And good luck to it". (Angus Wilson, "Observer"). "That special polish, that brilliance; Updike is among the best". (Malcolm Bradbury). "Brilliant and poignant...By his compassion, clarity of insight, and crystal-bright rose, [Updike] makes Rabbit's sorrow his and our own". ("Washington Post").

Review

Novel by John Updike, published in 1960. The novel's hero is Harry ("Rabbit") Angstrom, a 26-year-old former high-school athletic star who is disillusioned with his present life and flees from his wife and child in a futile search for grace and order. Three sequels--Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990)--continue the story of Rabbit in the succeeding decades of his life. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

From the Publisher

I read Rabbit, Run when I was in high school (and it wasn't even a school assignment!). Twenty years later (at least!), three very vivid scenes from that book still pop into my head from time to time. The first is the used-car lot, where Rabbit Angstrom, the former basketball star, works for his father-in-law. The second scene is in a very red Chinese restaurant that had changed over from a French restaurant only the week before. Rabbit is there with his old coach and two women that are not their wives, and they drink daiquiris and whiskey sours. This restaurant could have been (and was) in my small town. The third scene is the most harrowing, and I've repeated it as a cautionary tale to young mothers for years, telling the story as if it had happened to someone I know. Janice, Rabbit's wife, who slugs alcohol throughout her pregnancy, is drunk and bathing her newborn baby when something terrible happens. I won't ruin it by telling you more. I read hundreds of books a year, both for my job and for pleasure, so the fact that parts of this book are so indelibly etched in my mind is a testament to the talent and genius of John Updike.
P.S. all of the other books in the Rabbit series are equally unforgettable.
--Maureen O'Neal