Rabbit, Run | Literary Precedents

Updike revealed his fascination with the notion of a downwardly mobile ex-basketball player in two previous short works. A short story, "Ace in the Hole," originally appeared in the New Yorker and was anthologized in 1955. Ex-basketball star Ace drives home to his ineffectual wife, Even, after being fired from his job, feeling "crowded" by his mother and his wife. Running the last few blocks, he is mesmerized by the sight of a kid across the street "dribbling a basketball around a telephone pole that had a backboard and net nailed on it." This scene, with few alterations, forms...

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