Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner

Rabbit at Rest

by John Updike

Summary

In the closing volume of the Rabbit tetralogy, a retired and ailing Harry Angstrom drifts between Pennsylvania and a Florida condo as his dealership, his marriage, and his own body all begin to give way under the weight of late-1980s America. Updike threads national anxieties—AIDS, drugs, the end of the Cold War—through the most intimate domestic scenes. The book is widely regarded as one of the great closing acts in modern American serial fiction.

Historical Context & Significance

Updike became one of only three writers to win two Pulitzers for the same series of characters (the other being Booth Tarkington).