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Rabbit, Run
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Plot Summary of Rabbit, Run
"Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom finds himself running from mostly everything - including his wife, child, job, and himself. He shacks up with a local whore, Ruth, and relates to Ruth really well in the sexual manner, but seems awkward during everyday situations. He inevitable becomes attached to both his wife and Ruth and has a hard time deciding which fate suits him better - or another alternative is neither lifestyle.
"

David G. Phillips, Resident Scholar

"    Harry Angstrom was a high school basketball star, nicknamed "rabbit". That was only a few years ago, but now he is a married father trapped in the suburbs. His wife is an alcoholic, and his son did not inherit any of his father's athletic ability. So "rabbit" begins to feel that he has only two choices left to him, he can work to make his life better, or he can run like a rabbit. Harry makes the decision to run, and abandon his family.
    While driving to pick up his young son, Harry impulsively drives from his home in Pennsylvania, to West Virginia. He feels that he deserves a much better life than the one he has now. Unable to go to Florida, he finds his old high school coach, who is now a worn-out man who introduces Harry to a part-time prostitute named Ruth. Rabbit moves in with the prostitute that very night and they begin a relationship which they flaunt openly, humiliating his pregnant wife and both sets of parents. Will he abandon Ruth, the hooker who accepted him as he was but is also pregnant with his child?
"

Nathaniel Ford, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Rabbit, Run
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 1960's-1970's
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - midlife crisis
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Main char. serviced by prostitute? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - unemployed
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female - society
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb: Yes
Eccentric: - emotionally unstable - dumb
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount - a lot
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 (a fair amount)
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
Mountains/Cliffs Yes
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - dumb Rednecks, like Gomer Pyle

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - impregnation/reproduction - actual description of hetero sex - descript. of female anat. (the big B's)
Unusual Style: - No single main character?
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Rabbit, Run
A Town Where Lights Are Blue by William Saffell
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
They Whisper by Robert Olen Butler
Wifey by Judy Blume
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards


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John Updike Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Nathaniel Ford  

SCHOLARS:
Charles B. Owen  


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