Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Rabbit, Rest in Peace


I'm so sad that John Updike has passed away yesterday. I had read "Rabbit, Run" almost 20 years ago and recently re-read it, then "Rabbit Redux" and am about to begin "Rabbit is Rich". Some have considered him to be a misogynist but I don't see him that way, much for the reason I don't consider Charles Bukowski to be one either. I underline words and phrases as I read and decided to randomly open the book and choose whichever phrase had really struck a chord with me while reading: "the woman's face a hatchet of smoke in the square shadow. Tall coffin lined with hair clopping along to the tune of a dying horse." What I loved most about Updike other than his wonderful writing was that he wrote about regular people in real situations and was able to make them sound beautiful even when in actuality the human existence is rather an ugly thing. One more beautiful phrase very apt for the end "As he closes the door he feels he has spent his whole life opening and closing this door."

4 comments:

Linda Summerfield said...

I also read and reread the Rabbit books, even though they always put me in a terrible funk.
Your Pal,
Linda

vivienne strauss said...

They put me there too, Linda but they are so well written, like a Bergman film. Oh how I love to torture myself in the bleak winter months...

Unknown said...

You wrote a great tribute, Vivienne.

O de FLANEURETTE said...

didn´t know until i read this...too bad!