Henry "Rabbit" Angstrom is being put out to pasture, turning over the family car business (technically owned by his wife) to their cocaine-addicted son. As a middle-aged has-been sports hero, he struggles to establish or renew healthy and satisfying relationships with someone - anyone, while trying to deal with his own loss of health and vigor. A series of bad choices isolate him from those who might be willing to overlook his bitter, condescending, sarcastic nature, in the end leaving him alone to deal with his mortality.
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The review of this Book prepared by Charles B. Owen
John Updike is considered a "literary" writer as opposed to a writer of "mainstream" fiction, but he comes dangerously close to the latter in his four-book saga about the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom of which "Rabbit At Rest" is the final installment. "Rabbit" is getting old now, pestered by heart disease and a growing alienation from everything he once held dear. An unfortunate dalliance with his son's wife only deepens the sizeable rift between "Rabbit" and his own wife so he flees to their vacation home in Florida, hoping to get his act together and find some reason to continue living. But the odds are against him and mounting all the time. "Rabbit At Rest" is a thought provoking, somewhat depressing and altogether fitting conclusion to the "Rabbit" series of books.
The review of this Book prepared by Bill Brumlow
