Preview of Rabbit Redux Summary:

The rival claims of freedom and responsibility are explored in Rabbit Redux from several different points of view. After twice deserting his wife in the earlier novel of the series, the title character is now trying to maintain a home in the face of increasing odds.

This time his wife experiments with freedom by having an affair with a used car salesman. Harry learns about this at a bar where the television repeatedly shows Apollo 11 blasting off to the moon. Updike thus reveals the emptiness in the life of his chief character at the very moment that America is ready to explore a new world in space.

The drug-crazed young girl and the black veteran offer two more examples of the contest between freedom and responsibility. Both characters think of themselves as free from the rules of any conventional society. His experience in Vietnam has convinced the veteran...