Word: rabbiters
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Some genteel mate swapping is suggested, and Rabbit finds himself in a cabin with a woman he does not desire. He stalls in the bathroom, examining the contents of the medicine chest: "He wonders whatever happened to Ipana and what was it Consumer Reports had to say about toothpastes a few issues back...
Updike's prose, which has sometimes drawn criticism for its sprays of filigree, remains faithful to the concrete forms of Rabbit's imagination. Images take root in the here and now: Rabbit's merchandise ("Like a little sea of melting candy his cars bake in the sun"); a swimming pool ("lit from underneath at night as if it has swallowed the moon"); a moment in January ("It is cold, a day that might bring snow, a day that feels hollow"). These moments, and many others like them, shed radiance on Rabbit and his surroundings, the very glow...
Updike's continuing interest in Harry Angstrom has led some to suspect that Rabbit is an alter ego, the author's version of what he himself could have become had he not left Shillington, Pa., for Harvard and a glittering literary career. "Well," Updike laughs, "I'm a good deal shorter than he is" (Rabbit is 6 ft. 3 in.; his creator 6 ft.). They differ in other ways too; the attraction seems to be one of opposites...
...Rabbit does not read books; for me, who reads and writes maybe too many, it's sort of a relief to deal with a character who is quite innocent of all that." Furthermore, the young Updike never seriously considered remaining in his native state: "Had I stayed a Pennsylvanian, I would have been a much tamer one than Harry Angstrom; I'm not sure by any stretch that I could have lived his disorderly life...
...Updike looks lean and fit. He claims an excess of 5 Ibs., but has visibly avoided Rabbit's paunch. He was jogging while writing Rabbit Is Rich but has stopped, at least for a while. He retains an interest in skiing, although he finds "it gets increasingly scary, the stiffer I feel and the more fragile." Social life consists of a round of dinner parties and frequent trips to Boston to see friends, ballet...