"Rabbit, Run," by John Updike

FM's rating:

1. Premise 7
2. Prose 10
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 9
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional – but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Just awesome prose.  “Sleep this night is not a dark haunted domain the mind must consciously set itself to invade, but a cave inside himself, into which he shrinks while the claws of the bear rattle like rain outside.”  Rabbit (in which role I cast Will Farrell – a great fit!) has had a positive life-changing experience here, at least temporarily escaping “the claws of the bear” that his life has become.  There is a poetic aspect to the prose without ever coming across as pretentious.  The overall message of the book gives us a re-hash of the rather existentialist, “life sucks” statement that was popular in American literature at the time.  Had the story given us a more profound message, this book could have easily moved up to a “9” (Excellent) in my estimation. 

Here’s the June line-up! 

“The Last King of Texas,” by Rick Riordan [6/6]

“No Good Deed,” by Manda Scott [6/13]

“1984,” by George Orwell [6/20]

“Endangered Species,” by Nevada Barr [6/27]