Rabbit, Run | Historical Context

Rabbit, Run Historical Context

According to Erik Kielland-Lund in New Essays on Rabbit, Run, "John Updike has said that the book is a product of the fifties and not really in a conscious way about" the fifties. However, Kielland- Lund noted, the book aptly reflects the American world at that time, in often dazzling detail. Even when it was published, Kielland-Lund noted, the book was recognized as reflecting "characteristics of society at that time": individualism, immaturity, religiosity, and love of sports. Donald J. Greiner wrote in John Updike's Novels that, as Updike himself noted in the foreword to the Modern Library edition of the book, it was written in 1959, in the present tense. The time of its writing contained the time of its action. Thus, the songs Rabbit hears on the radio, the news he hears, and the styles he sees were typical of the late fifties. According to Greiner, Updike has also...
(read more)