Rabbit.

I'm about halfway through Rabbit is Rich and am totally obsessed with it: to the point that I want to secretly read while my boss is out of the office. To the point that (yesterday afternoon), instead of attacking the massive list of chores I've been meaning to do all week, I made some tea and read until dinnertime. I am forcing myself to read slowly and relish each sentence. This is difficult for me, with my tendency toward speed reading. (Aside: I don't remember in what context I learned to speed read, but I think it was taught in middle school. In conjunction, perhaps, with typing?) But I'm doin' it.

The other day at work, I Wikipediaed Updike and was surprised to read that "some people" have criticized his work for being too rambling: sprawling. Here's the exact quote:

Updike is one of the most exquisite masters of prose style produced by 20th century America. Yet, his novels have been faulted for lacking any sense of action or character development. It appears at times that his ability to spin lovely phrases of delicate beauty and nuance overwhelm his desire to tell a simple, important story in the lives of his characters.

Whaaaaaa? First off, I know I shouldn't have expected to find serious, peer-reviewed lit-crit on Wikipedia - and I didn't expect this, actually - but... But. The above statements are just so global and unevinced. I mean, "any sense of action or character development" - is it possible for a work to lack entirely a sense of action? Even a speaker's leap from one thought pattern to another could classify as action. So, yeah. I don't know about Wikipedia.

What miffed me more, though, is Wiki's assessment of "no character development." I don't know about y'all, but to my mind, Rabbit Angstrom is one of the best American characters: ever. By "best," I mean not only most convincing (i.e., having consistent personality traits, seemingly-logical or consistent lines of reasoning, resembling an actual person), but most likely to earn my sympathy as a reader. I don't, on a superficial level, want to identify with/feel empathy for Rabbit: he's philandering, mildly overweight, a car salesman. But he's human, and his actions are presented in the context of his complete environment, which, having been developed for hundreds and hundreds of pages, and several decades, provides the reader a means to more profoundly understand Rabbit's motivations. Rabbit, like all of us, is inextricable from his environment; Updike's meticulous attention to environmental detail - the rings left on the patio table by a sweating glass, or a woman's constellation of freckles - suffuses his work, and informs the [psychic, physical] motion of his characters.

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Today is legit sweatshirt weather! (Last night was also sweatshirt weather, but I wasn't so excited then: I haven't taken out my intermediate-weight comforter yet, and I kept waking up because I was cold under my summer blanket.) Soon, it will be time for a trip to the apple orchard, and for pumpkin carving, and for pies.