Rabbit, Run Summary
John Updike

Rabbit, Run Summary

Section One

As Rabbit, Run opens, twenty-six-year-old former high school basketball star Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is on his way home from his unfulfilling job as a demonstrator of a kitchen gadget, the MagiPeel vegetable peeler. He spots some kids playing basketball and joins their play, fantasizing about his lost glory days, then runs home to his tiny, squalid apartment. His wife, Janice, who is pregnant, is home watching television and drinking. She asks Rabbit to go get their car, pick up their son, Nelson, and get her some cigarettes. This string of errands weighs on Rabbit, who feels trapped and bored in his job, his marriage, and his life. He sees his son through the window of his inlaws' house and decides to leave him in their care. On impulse, he gets in the car and starts driving south, away from his old life.

Turning onto smaller and smaller roads, Rabbit... View more of the Rabbit, Run Summary