Rabbit, take one

Rabbit, Run
John Updike
1960

Because of his disappointing stories published in the past few years in magazines, I'd forgotten that John Updike was so good. (If I knew I could get thousands of dollars for a story, I'd probably publish lots of stuff not up to my usual John Updike standards, too.)

Rabbit, Run is maybe the original quarter-life crisis story -- back when you weren't having a quarter-life crisis but were instead simply maintaining a sense of entitlement.

Rabbit is 26, and he married "late" at 23. His 26 seems somehow both so much older and so much younger than my forthcoming 26. He's married. He has a kid and one on the way. But he lives in his hometown and hasn't gotten a start on a career, and there is no college buffer between him and high school. He goes from high school basketball star to family man (sort of) with what seems like nothing in between.

Harry Angstrom is a man haltingly starting on his way in life, and it's hard not see a little something of my own uncertainties in this mid-20th-century adult.