Prose and Style as presented by America's Pastime

John Updike is not a character in Rabbit Redux. His personality does not enter the narrative as a character, narrator or theme. Updike created the world and sits above it and orchestrates the events to unfold, but rarely does he enter it himself. Letting the reader draw conclusions is the best form of writing, as it allows for more interpretation; and in this world of Post-Modern fiction everyone has a voice.

As a sidebar, do not be afraid to read and interpret what you read. Draw your own conclusions and make your own statements. Once the novel is published, the author has no more authority over it than anyone who chose to pay money to read his work. The author is beholden to you, the audience. Not the other way around. Civilization has not stopped because a book went unread, and no author is above criticism. I learned this fact last winter when attending my contemporary literature course. We read Break the Skin by Lee Martin and then had a seminar with him because it was an interesting novel and because he is also a professor here at Ohio State. In this meeting, we asked questions and discussed the work. He was happy to oblige, especially at questions that were critical of his writing style or questions that him why he made the choices he did regarding plot, setting and characters. I enjoyed this session immensely and found that authors are not above the criticism.

But back to this author and this work, Updike is not a player in his own works. Rabbit and friends are not reflections of the author. While Rabbit is overweight, of average intelligence and oafish; Updike in his living years was thin, handsome and in the know about politics and foreign affairs. While Rabbit is not a reflection, he is also not the opposite. Every work comes from the author’s own experience. And Updike, being the All-American man of words that he was, made Rabbit in his image of experiences and people. Rabbit is a combination of all the things that Updike likes in humanity, dislikes in humanity and things in his own character that he lacks or appreciates.

In Redux there are certain passages that are written that are clearly Updike’s hand entering into the world.  Early on when he, Nelson and Janice’s father attend a baseball game, Updike says this:

“But something has gone wrong. The ball game is boring. The spaced dance of the men in white fails to enchant , the code beneath the staccato spurts of distant motion refuses to yield its meaning. Though basketball was his sport, Rabbit remembers the grandeur of all that grass, the excited perilous feeling when a high fly was hoisted your way, the homing-in on the expanding dot, the leathery smack of the catch, the formalized nonchalance of the heads-down trot in toward the bench, the ritualized flips and shrugs and the nervous courtesies of the batter’s box.” (Page 88)

I assure you that speech like this is reserved by the author for his own private use when he is attempting to speak on something grand and mystical. Rabbit, nor none of his brethren in this world, never EVER use this style of speech. They don’t say things like staccato or perilous. Their nonchalance is stated as awkwardness or uncertainty. Updike never allows his characters to be cool enough to be nonchalant. No, here Updike is speaking in terms of Baseball. Baseball, that magical game that contains all of America’s hopes and dreams; the pageantry and pride of a nation resides in a strange game derived from its British father, rounders, and its Indian cousin, cricket. The Game. Updike says that baseball is fundamental to Rabbit’s world in that it is the height of sporting prowess. Rabbit can’t achieve it, he is forever stuck in sweaty gymnasiums; banished to the cold dark winter months where sport can’t flourish outside and must be kindled like tinder in square boxes containing hoops and men in shorts until it can return in full flame to its sconce on the diamond. Baseball. Updike captures the essence of a nation in such a simple game. Rabbit can’t fully comprehend it because Updike won’t allow him to do so. No, Rabbit. Your victory and pride have passed, but even at your height you could not obtain this greater glory.

In this passage and others like it. Our author speaks from outside but is looking inward. He sees the majesty of the game, but it’s complete mystical power eludes Rabbit; it goes over his head like another fly ball escaping the yard.