Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Rabbit Redux

  • By: John Updike
  • Narrated by: William Hope
  • Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (79 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Rabbit Redux

By: John Updike
Narrated by: William Hope
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

It's 1969, and the times are changing. America is about to land a man on the moon, the Vietnamese war is in full swing, and racial tension is on the rise. Things just aren't as simple as they used to be - at least not for Rabbit Angstrom.

His wife has left him with his teenage son, his job is under threat and his mother is dying. Suddenly, into his confused life - and home - comes Jill, an 18-year-old runaway who becomes his lover. But when she invites her friend to stay, a young black radical named Skeeter, the pair's fragile harmony soon begins to fail....

John Updike was born in 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He attended Shillington High School, Harvard College and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford, where he spent a year on a Knox Fellowship. From 1955 to 1957, he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, to which he contributed numerous poems, short stories, essays and book reviews. After 1957 he lived in Massachusetts until his death.

John Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, was published in 1959. It was followed by Rabbit, Run, the first volume of what have become known as the Rabbit books.

Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990) were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

©1971 John Updike (P)2015 Audible, Ltd
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Mr. Vertigo cover art
Light in August cover art
Waiting for the Barbarians cover art
Sodom Road Exit cover art
The Music of Chance cover art
AFRAID - Tidbits of the Macabre cover art
Songs in Ordinary Time cover art
Herzog cover art
Sufficiently Advanced Magic cover art
Mary Barton cover art
Updike cover art
The Enchanter cover art
Of Blood and Fire cover art
Entreat Me cover art

Critic reviews

"A masterpiece.... Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit.” ( Time)
“An awesomely accomplished writer.... For God’s sake, read the book. It may even - will probably change your life.” (Anatole Broyard)
“A superb performance, all grace and dazzle...a brilliant portrait of middle America.” ( Life)

What listeners say about Rabbit Redux

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    58
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    61
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    48
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Just as good as the first.

I thought rabbit was the worst in the first book but some of the characters in this one challenge that. Excellent narration by William Hope.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent follow-up

Updike could have done anything with a sequal. Where he chose to go was thought-provoking and amusing be equal measure. His powers of description are unparalleled.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Narration - thought provoking

Updike skilfully makes a character sympathetic to you, despite in some ways being an unpleasant personality. You see the world through his eyes - all the compromises, all the self - deception. But his descriptive detail is precise; what he describes in one line would take other authors pages and pages of material.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Hasn't aged well.

I love Phillip Roths books and this in no way compares. Well performed but not at all enjoyable or funny and I think doesn't age well at all. I managed to just about get through Rabbit Run but this sequel was unbearable. I skimmed through the second half on high speed. The reader did his best so I don't blame him.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An Audio Masterclass

I would recommend that this is required listening for all aspiring audio book narrators. William Hope will show you how it's done.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful