Rabbit, Run by John Updike

I just finished reading Run, Rabbit by John Updike. It instantly elbowed its way into my top ten books read of all time. One of the most interesting issues raised in it is appropriate reactions to feeling trapped.

Without giving too much away for those of you who have yet to read it (and believe me, you really should) the biggest issue in Rabbit's life is a sinking feeling of being hemmed in. He has a young wife and a young son with a another child on the way. His life, he feels, is one of work, TV, sleep and routine.

One day, while coming home from work, he plays basketball with a group of neighborhood boys. Rabbit, having once been a standout basketball player in high school, runs the boys ragged. He finds himself to still be great. To still have something come to him easy and natural.

Later when he runs (I assume this is not giving away too much given the title is Run, Rabbit) he longs to reclaim that young, free spirit he once had and tasted ever so briefly in his basketball game.

For him everything is a sign. From the old man who sells him a map to how easily his car starts. In his head he noses constantly towards a rightness he has trouble defining. And since he has this trouble defining it, the process of arriving to it changes as easily as the circumstances. First his salvation lies in the far off waves of warm beaches, then it is in the arms of another woman, then it is back in the arms of his wife (OK, there is basically the whole story, sorry). It is always something different for him. And he never realizes that for him it isn't anything, it is everything. It is the actual act of running, of moving, of never putting roots far enough to handle a windy day.

Throughout he thinks excuses in his head. How if his wife had just done this, he would have stayed, how if the roads had been kinder he would have made it to the beach, how if his new woman had answered him in the night he would have stayed with her till he grew old. It is never an issue of him and always an issue of others.

It's a shockingly honest and surprisingly still fresh look (despite the fact that he describes shooting the basketball underhand) at what it means to really shed the skin of adolescence and take on the heavier hide of responsibility. I think it is especially poignant for the people of my generation who are used to instant Twitter feeds and iPhone updates. If something is wrong today, we think of sweeping, grand changes to make it better for tomorrow.

I see this in myself.

And yet...

To read of Rabbit struggling, failing, succeeding and failing again is to look upon myself and my generation from a wider angle and wonder.

It also has one of the most gripping scenes I've ever read in my entire life involving a baby, whiskey and a bathtub. I cried from the written word for the first time in a very long time.

To update my top ten list (rough draft):

1. East of Eden

2. Cannery Row

3. The History of Love

4. Run, Rabbit

5. The Brothers K

6. Let the Great World Spin

7. The House on Mango Street

8. Everything is Illuminated

9. Sweet Thursday

10. The Road