Updike, Rabbit, and the Mid-life crisis

[Flipshod]

I grew up reading the Rabbit series (and the rest of Updike). I’m 42, and I always thought I had learned from Rabbit how NOT to have a mid-life crisis. But it turns out I apparently learned how to to do the really big one.

So what do you Rabbit fans remember are the cautionary tales and rewards of the full blown mid-life crisis?

(BTW I had the chance to meet Updike a few years ago and told him my mom always considered me Rabbit’s son. He said good thing you got off that cocaine. He also signed my old copy of A Month of Sundays.---- R.I.P.

flip

[Isamu]

@Flipshod

I grew up reading the Rabbit series (and the rest of Updike). I’m 42, and I always thought I had learned from Rabbit how NOT to have a mid-life crisis. But it turns out I apparently learned how to to do the really big one.

So what do you Rabbit fans remember are the cautionary tales and rewards of the full blown mid-life crisis?

Wife swapping evenings while on vacation = cautionary tale in that it’s bad when the guy you despise gets your wife and you end up with a homely one. But rewarding when you get some anal sex thrown in with the deal.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

Of course, the Rabbit novels are not just about a mid-life crisis. They’re about a third-of-the-way-through-life crisis (Rabbit, Run, a mid-life crisis (Rabbit, Redux), a slightly later midlife crisis (Rabbit is Rich), and a three-quarters-life-crisis (Rabbit at Rest).