A little over a month ago the late American author John Updike was recommended to me by a friend. After sampling some of his writing in the New Yorker and deciding I liked it, I bought "Rabbit Angstrom," an anthology of his four famous "Rabbit" novels, and I've been slowly reading from that bright red tome (often mistaken for a Bible) ever since.
What strikes me so much about the Rabbit novels is the scope of time they cover. They all follow the story of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, but in each novel he is a decade older and living in a different era of American life--starting with cocky 26-year old basketball star navigating the 50's in the first book, "Rabbit, Run" and ending with an aged Rabbit cruising through the 80's in "Rabbit at Rest."
Although on the surface Updike often focused (perhaps a bit too much) on sex, his novels also painted detailed picture of what it meant to be American during each of those decades. Through Rabbit and his sometimes-bizarre and always-changing supporting cast Updike chronicled the hippie culture of the sixties and the moon landing right on through the Japanese car invasion, all the while injecting--often subtly--his opinion into the account.
Given today's uncertain economy and indeed uncertain world I can't help but wonder what Updike might have written about the new millennium and all it has brought us, both good and bad, had he been inclined to expand the Rabbit novels beyond a quartet. Defining moments like 9/11 or the election of our nation's first black president are a given, but what other less obvious hallmarks of this decade would Updike have highlighted? Perhaps the meteoric rise of the internet, cell phones, GPS and other technological gadgetry into mainstream culture? The war in Iraq? the Bush presidency? Global warming and efforts at "going green?"
What themes and events have defined the 00's? Think about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment