Rabbit Redux: The Good, the Bad, the . ?
Just to show you that modern masterpieces are not universally acclaimed, here are two excerpts from reviews of the second book in the ‘Rabbit Trilogy’ by John Updike. Aren’t you glad you aren’t a scientist, since if that were the case, you’d have to actually be able to prove your propositions (or at least try to)?
“‘Rabbit Redux’ is bad in the way that RABBIT, RUN is bad. But it is bad in some different ways as well. It is a tedious album of the most futile monochromes of the 60s America; it is leering, erratic, and gimmicky; it is disingenuous and trite. At best it is dull, at worst a shabby outrage of an imagination damaged by indulgence. Rabbit’s importance as a person is trifling: he is too sententious to be credible, too passive and articulate to count.”
Book World - Paul Theroux (11/14/1971)
Explore posts in the same categories: BOOK REVIEW, English majors, Literature, humanities, web log“An awesomely accomplished writer….For God’s sake, read the book. It may even–will probably–change your life.”
New York Times - Anatole Broyard
