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Author Updike's Book Reviews

Gertrude and Claudius
The book is a prequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet. It tells the story of Gertrude's affair with Claudius (her brother-in-law) and Claudius' murder of King Hamlet (Gertrude's husband). It ends where Shakespeare's play begins....
Licks of Love
Knopf, Nov 2000, 25.00, 358 pp. ISBN: 0375411135 This collection is a well-written short story anthology centering on the foibles of loving someone more than one love oneself. In addition to the dozen tales, the legendary John Updike includes a novella about the Rabbit family. That tale, “Rabbit Remembered” is worth the “steep” price of admission by itself. The short stories are enjoyable, but Mr. Updike has plowed no new ground. Pe...
Rabbit At Rest
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, sarc...
Rabbit Redux (Literature)

Updike booklist

Rabbit Redux (Literature)
Rabbit Redux is the second book of one of the most important author series of amenrican literature: Rabbit novels by John Updike. In Rabbit Redux we meet again with the main character of the series, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, now 10 years older, already a middle aged man with a job he really hates, a marriage that doesn't work anymore and a teenage son. His wife, Janice, leaves him to be with one of her co-workers, Stavros. Harry remains with his son, Nels...
Rabbit, Run
Harry Angstrom was a high school basketball star, nicknamed "rabbit". That was only a few years ago, but now he is a married father trapped in the suburbs. His wife is an alcoholic, and his son did not inherit any of his father's athletic ability. So "rabbit" begins to feel that he has only two choices left to him, he can work to make his life better, or he can run like a rabbit. Harry makes the decision to run, and abandon his family. While d...
The Centaur
My favorite Updike, “The Centaur” evokes the majesty of mythology as the author parallels the story of Chiron, the wisest and best of the centaurs, who gives up his immortality, after being wounded, on behalf of Prometheus. Down to earth, Updike's story is that of a high school teacher (“Chiron”) and his teenage son (“Prometheus) and the parallel, symbolic story grows from there. Some knowledge of Greek mythology certainly helps in following the...
Villages (Literature)
Owen Mackenzie is an elderly retired software designer living in a marital bliss with his second wife, Julia, in a small town from Massachusetts. However, the true story is about all the other women that once existed in Owen's life. The character has a lot of flashbacks, remembering about his first marriage with Phyllis, an brilliant mathematician and MIT graduate but a rather frigid woman. Despite not having a great sex life with Phyllis, they still m...
Villages (Literature)