John Updike – Rabbit At Rest

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom is back in this final installment of Updike's four-decade chronicle. Now 55 and semi-retired, Harry spends half the year in Florida with wife Janice while Nelson, their son, runs the family business. Yet Harry's “golden years” are far from happy: he has ballooned to 230 pounds and suffers from angina. Janice is becoming increasingly independent. Nelson's cocaine habit is bankrupting Springer Motors. Harry sees decline on all sides, and the novel's great strength is how Updike links Harry's decline to that of his country, giving his sense of loss an elegiac feel. Despite some flaws–excessive length, a weak characterization of Nelson–the novel measures up well against the rest of the series. This is the saddest and deepest of the “Rabbit” novels, an aching portrait of America at the end of the Reagan era. Certain to be in demand.