John Updike’s Human Comedy: Comic Morality in "The Centaur</I> and the "Rabbit</I> Novels (Modern American Literature)

The comedy in John Updike's most important works--The Centaur; Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and Rabbit Remembered--defines a comic world and its morality. Although critics have failed to recognize the extent and the importance of Updike's comedy, his serious fiction does contain a good deal of farce, burlesque, and irony that, far from being peripheral or mere comic relief, depicts the absurd and contradictory nature of life. Within such a world, set in the everyday Pennsylvania of the second half of the twentieth century, human beings mature, or gain Kierkegaard's ethical sphere, by fulfilling their societal and generational responsibilities. George Caldwell of The Centaur is Updike's paragon, while Rabbit Angstrom embodies the comic hero who, through trial and error, finally matures. Overall, through an analysis of Updike's comedy, this book reveals a dimension of his fiction that is essential to understanding his work. "The comedy in John Updike's most important works - The Centaur; Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and "Rabbit Remembered" - defines a comic world and its morality. Although critics have failed to recognize the extent and the importance of Updike's comedy, his serious fiction does contain a good deal of farce, burlesque, and irony that, far from being peripheral or mere comic relief, depicts the absurd and contradictory nature of life. Within such a world, set in the everyday Pennsylvania of the second half of the twentieth century, human beings mature, or gain Kierkegaard's ethical sphere, by fulfilling their societal and generational responsibilities. George Caldwell of The Centaur is Updike's paragon, while Rabbit Angstrom embodies the comic hero who, through trial and error, finally matures. Overall, through an analysis of Updike's comedy, this book reveals a dimension of his fiction that is essential to understanding his work."--BOOK JACKET. Keener (English, New York City College of Technology) attempts to correct the omission of previous critical studies of Updike by attending to the comedy in several of Updike's major novels. After a survey of Updike criticism, Keener provides a taxonomy of Updike's comedy and reviews the themes and concerns of traditional comedy. He then devotes a chapter to The Centaur and to each of the Rabbit novels to demonstrate that an awareness of the comedy in these works leads to a better understanding of them and resolves several perceived problems. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR The comic paragon and the meticulous man in The Centaur The comic hero's place in the generations in Rabbit, Run The comic hero's renewal in the Rabbit Rudux The role of comedy in dispelling illusion in Rabbin is Rich The comic hero accepts his mortality in Rabbit at Rest Nelson Redux in "Rabbit Remembered".