Rabbit, Run redux

I recently finished re-reading Rabbit, Run by John Updike, which I first read at age 20 or so (after interviewing Updike, I felt I really should read some of his books, which was probably the opposite of how I should have done it).

So now that I'm a lot older, and it struck me how young Rabbit was, and how young Updike was. The prose is a lot flashier, the sex a lot more euphemistic and flashier too. I found Rabbit even more unsympathetic: perhaps because now, I could understand his choice about family, and realize what a shmuck he was about it. But it was a compelling portrait of a young man coming to grips with the reality of growing up. Is he redeemed? Perhaps. Rabbit, Redux may tell me.

This is my first blog post (how unoriginal). I'm newly laid-off, from Informio, so I'm going to be putting a lot more time into my home page (where this will eventually reside). I'm just back from Japan - stay tuned for the travelogue. One book that clarified a lot of the recent history before the visit was
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert Bix.

A book I got just after I got back, and am enjoying a lot, is In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, a history of Congo under Mobutu.