The Houston Montrose Great Books discussion last night, Oct 6, 2011 at the Houston Freed Montrose Library was extremely enjoyable in my opinion though the book RABBIT, RUN by John Updike wasn't the most pleasant of reading experiences for me.
Jean was a very capable moderator of twenty-one (21) attendees whose opinions were all strong but widely divergent. FYI - Jean moderated because she was the one who originally submitted the title for our ballot. For those not aware, we vote every six months on books which generally are winners of major literary awards or whose authors are winners of major literary awards or whose authors are writers of traditional classics such as Tolstoy, Hemingway, etc..
In response to one of Jean's first questions, many attendees were very quick to voice the opinion that they thought Harry Angstrom, otherwise known as "Rabbit" and the main character was a narcisistic, immature, misogynistic, jack-ass. My contribution to this was the opinion that Harry was missing any self-awareness, consequently he was always making "messes" and didn't appear to understand how he might be responsible or how he might avoid making mistakes in the future.
One of the questions Jean asked the group was why Harry was given the nickame of "Rabbit" by the author. I thought one interesting observation that came later but was very pertinent was that Harry had many animal qualities, driven by hormones, fear, pleasure, and stimulation. He didn't seem to have much cerebral activity going on though nearly every one seemed to agree he was fairly smart. Everyone laughed when someone else commented that Harry seemed to procreate like a rabbit. One of his final acts in the book was the act of "running" from a woman whom he had gotten pregnant and who wasn't his wife and who had wanted to use contraception but Harry was opposed because he liked for things to "just happen".
Most agreed that the story was an accumulation of incredibly mundance observations and details, so mundane that it was very tedious and/or uncomfortable to read. All agreed that the author was great, brilliant, a genius or pick your adjective if it relates to a writer with great talent. But many though not all agreed that the style of writing was not appealing to those who enjoy efficient verbage which accomplishes the most vivid mental pictures with the least amount of words. This is pretty much opposite of how one would describe John Updike's style in this book.
The mundane details were astonishing in the first sex scene between Harry and Ruth. Though in general, the book seemed "dated" to me and not characteristic of a more modern style that I prefer, the details in this sex scene appeared to be more modern than not, and one attendee commented that this seemed to be amazing in how close it comes to being pornography without being pornography, a type of writing that seems much more common now than it was back in the 60's when this book was written.
Another aspect of Updike's style in this book which I mentioned in the discussion was the reference to body parts in almost every encounter Harry had with others, whether female or male, parent or child, sexual or not sexual - legs, thighs, mounds of flesh and lots of references to "faces", whether it was at times where Harry couldn't look at someone's "face" or whether he was petting someone's "face" or whether he noticed how angry their "facial" expression was. In one case he dreamed about "Janice's face" rather than dreamed about "Janice". These of course can be important details but why weren't the descriptions about someone being angry rather than their face being angry? We didn't have an answer for that question.
All of the characters were discussed either in depth or at last partially including Harry's high school coach Tothero, Harry's wife Janice, his parents and his prostitute girlfriend Ruth, the Episcopalian minister Eccles and his wife Lucy as well as Janice's parents and Harry's son, Nelson.
One final question I'll mention that was brought up in our discussion but which remained unanswered was the theme of religion. One of the characters was an Episcopalian minister who tried to be a mentor to Harry but was unsuccessful. What was Updike trying to accomplish with this character as well as with many other settings where a church was included or where discussions about Harry's belief or lack of belief in God were included at various stages in the story? Something to ponder about and research the web about which is what I like to do AFTER the discussion, not before. This is a particular rule I like to follow so I can remain ignorant about authoritative interpretations of a work until later after I have formed my own opinion.
Looking forward to our next discussion November 3rd at Houston Freed Montrose Library from 6pm to 8pm. Discussion will be followed by socializing at the Black Lab restaurant next door to the library (we don't normally do too much socializing during the discussion). The book next time will be HUNGER by Knut Hamsun. More info on our website at http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose
