The Oxford Companion to American Literature | Updike, John [Hoyer]
Updike, John [Hoyer]( 1932– ), Pennsylvania-born novelist and poet, after graduation from Harvard (1954) worked for The New Yorker (1955–57), before publishing his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), a short work about the revolt of a poorhouse's aged inhabitants against a sociologically oriented director, a seeming parable about individuals' antipathy to the welfare state. Rabbit, Run (1960), a full-length novel, treats an unstable, immature young man who, still hankering for the glamour and applause of his days as a high-school athlete, deserts his wife and child. Rabbit Redux (1971) is a sequel whose protagonist, age 36, is now seen with his life having crumbled around him. In a later sequel, Rabbit Is Rich (1981, Pulitzer Prize), the major character is middle-aged and well-to-do. Rabbit at Rest (1990) is the final novel about ex-basketball player Harry Rabbit Angstrom, his lively complaints, and...
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