I had been looking for some used John Updike for a while but nothing ever turned up until I found an omnibus edition at a book fair, a fund-raiser for women in music. The edition contained the first three Rabbit novels, “Rabbit, Run”, “Rabbit Redux”, and “Rabbit is Rich”. The price was nice too, one dollar fifty. The price was actually $3, but it was the second day of the book fair and what ever was left was marked down to 50% off.
What a find, you might say. But this edition had been abused by its previous owner. Someone had read the first novel and then set the book down face up in between books one and two. This created a distinct crease down the spine and stressed the internal page bindings. To keep the book from falling apart I put duct tape on the spine. I attempted to mend the internals to no avail, the sections slowly came apart as I read.
I did not enjoy reading “Rabbit, Run”. I enjoyed reading Updikes prose, but the actions that Rabbit took and the book ending did not leave me wanting to read the sequels. So I definitely procrastinated reading “Rabbit Redux”. However, I did enjoy Redux much more that Run. This might have been the format. In Run, Rabbit is the agent of his destiny no matter how cringe worthy that becomes. In Redux, things seems to instead happen to Rabbit, and he just lets them happen. In both books you are essentially watching a train wreck but the perspective of Redux makes it a little more enjoyable ride.