Why do I dislike this novel so much? The writing is excellent, there is no doubt of that. Pick any page and you can find something impressive about the writing. Updike is particularly good at finding the right image to get his point across to the reader.
But the characters are mean and uninteresting. From Rabbit down they are boring, mean-spirited, and selfish. The kind of people I try to avoid in real life, so why am I reading a novel about them? The story is also boring. There is nothing memorable about this book.
So I took out my bookmark and set the book aside. Next in the stack was "The Color Purple", and it only took a few pages to be hopelessly hooked on the character and story of Celie. The contrast could not be greater, and I have nothing good to say about "Rabbit At Rest".
Oh, and another thing, I have never seen so many typographical mistakes in a book. Who proofread this edition?
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