The 2nd (of 3) sections in Updike's Rabbit at Rest (1990) takes place back in Rabbit's home town, Brewer, Pa., and as a result this section - compared w/ the first, set on the Florida Gulf Coast - feels familiar to readers of the Rabbit quartet and of other Updike stories and novels. We've been here before - and yet ... Updike still manages to give a terrific description of the fading industrial city as he gives us a vivid account of what it's like to return to one's home town after many years (even though Rabbit still lives half-year-round in Brewer), noticing all the changes, how small the houses once-grand now look, how each locale restores some memory, as Proust well knew and examined. Again, this novel is like a time capsule; the Pennsylvania industrial city JU describes, w/ its factory outlets and the first inroads of some high-tech companies looking for cheap property and housing, would present a completely different face and aura if described today. The plot wanes a bit in this section, as Rabbit pursues his adulterous misadventures - reconnecting w/ (one of his) long-time sex partners, Thelma (readers of Rabbit Is Rich will appreciate some of the nuances here), in a way that is highly improbable, remarkably guilt-free, and typical of Updike's work from Couples onward. With the sex scene out of the way, however, Updike continues forward w/ the main plot, as at last Rabbit suspects his son may be draining funds from the family Toyota dealership to finance his crack habit; as he shares his concerns w/ wife Janice, she is as we know steps ahead of him and, we suspect, will get into deep trouble (and debt?) to defend the immature and selfish behavior of their wayward, cantankerous son.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.