1960
Rabbit, Run
John Updike · 1932–2009 · United States
Why it matters
A former high-school basketball star flees his marriage and job, chasing a grace he can't name. The first of Updike's four Rabbit novels: middle-class American manhood examined in shimmering prose.
At a glance
psychological noveltragedy
Difficulty 5/10medium pace264 pagesPresent-tense, sensorily dense prose slows a deceptively ordinary plot.
Deep dive
What Rabbit means by "grace" — the feeling he's chasing every time he takes off — and why pursuing it always looks, from everyone else's side of the door, exactly like abandonment.
