Rabbit Angstrom keeps coming back, like a song that says "remember." (p. 1)

[He] and Updike have a relation that may be unique in literature. Once Arnold Bennett created Clayhanger or Ford Madox Ford his Tietjens, each stayed with his character. Trollope wrote other books in between work on his Barchester and Palliser novels, but Trollope never focused his series on one place or character. Updike, though, published "Rabbit Run" in 1960, "Rabbit Redux" in 1971—and now "Rabbit Is Rich." In between, there has been no reason to believe that Updike cares any more about what happens to Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom that he does about characters he has been content to create and abandon. But then the summons comes.

One reason Rabbit has this power may be that he is not Updike, but the one who didn't leave Shillington, go to Harvard, become a dazzling novelist. Updike might see him...