by John Updike
First published 1996
Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom sits in his car outside his house, engine running. At twenty six, the former high school basketball star makes a split second choice that changes everything. He drives away from his wife and young son without explanation or plan. What follows becomes a desperate search through small town Pennsylvania as Harry tries to justify his abandonment. He moves between sexual desire and guilt, between the pull of freedom and the weight of responsibility. Harry believes he follows an invisible path toward his own redemption, even as his actions hurt everyone around him. The novel tracks his zigzag journey as he struggles with basic questions about duty and instinct. Harry remains convinced that his flight leads somewhere meaningful, that salvation waits at the end of his wandering. This internal war between what he wants and what he owes defines every choice he makes.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Pennsylvania
Period: 1960s
Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: depression