John Updike; the critical responses to the "Rabbit" saga

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

PS3571

2003-058161

0-313-30983-3

John Updike; the critical responses to the "Rabbit" saga.

Updike, John. Ed. by Jack De Bellis. (Critical responses in arts and letters; no.40)

Praeger, [c]2005

298 p.

$97.95

Nearly three dozen previously published reviews and articles provide a sense of the reception of Updike's four Rabbit novels and the novella Rabbit Remembered. The pieces demonstrate the range of readings possible for the saga and also show how initial praise or objection lay the groundwork for critical arguments using historical and biographical approaches as well as responses from feminism, psychology, and popular culture. Editor De Bellis (emeritus, English, Lehigh U.) selected pieces from a variety of scholarly and mainstream sources; the authors include Brendan Gill, Alfred Kazin, Joyce Carol Oates, Hermione Lee, Thomas M. Disch, and Updike himself. The volume suffers from a lack of care in copy editing, giving it a slapdash air that's not a fatal flaw but a distracting one.