John Updike's human comedy; comic morality in The Centaur and the Rabbit novels

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

PS3571

2004-006665

0-8204-7090-2

John Updike's human comedy; comic morality in The Centaur and the Rabbit novels.

Keener, Brian. (Modern American literature; new approaches; v.43)

Peter Lang Publishing Inc, [c]2005

148 p.

$58.95

Keener (English, New York City College of Technology) attempts to correct the omission of previous critical studies of Updike by attending to the comedy in several of Updike's major novels. After a survey of Updike criticism, Keener provides a taxonomy of Updike's comedy and reviews the themes and concerns of traditional comedy. He then devotes a chapter to The Centaur and to each of the Rabbit novels to demonstrate that an awareness of the comedy in these works leads to a better understanding of them and resolves several perceived problems.