| Show 2E The Salt Lake Tribune Sunday October 14 1990 Updike carries on Rabbit at Rest by Alfred A Knopf 512 John Updike pp $2195 Recycling flourished in literature long before it worked its way down to cans and newspapers Plato retooled Socrates in dialogue after dialogue Shakespeare revived Henry VI twice and Henry IV once Edgar Rice Burroughs kept Tarzan in vines through more than 20 novels So let's not reproach John Updike as he turns his beginning-o- f trick of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom the junk-foo- d Up dike "who might have been" if the Pennauthor hadn't left small-tow- n sylvania for Harvard and cultural Immortality Let's simply recap Harry Angstrom first started retailing his exurban existentialism in Rabbit Run (1960) Updike's second faded high novel A school basketball star living in Pennsylvania's "fifth-largecity" (ie Reading) Rabbit agonized over his lost athletic glory and suffocated in the company of Janice his pregnant alcoholic wife Confused lustful crisis-ridde- n he ran out on her and took up with a prostitute "Rabbit Run" ended in tragedy with Rabbit still psychologically on the lam Harry returned in Rabbit Redux (1971) as a linotypist for his local Brewer Pa paper and was assaulted by walking news items of the late '60s — hippies drugs antiwar types Janice now working for her father's Toyota dealership leapt into an affair with a Rabbit's son Nelson disdained him Rabbit took up with a trampy girl and wound up a psychological captive of her pimp and friend a Messianic black Vietnam vet and drug user Surviving that --- ' ' 0- 7 - -' : t ' 4K ''' ' i ' - '''Nt ett- - - -- ' g i w : mark i t 1 - 1 t s ov‘ A Pot-- N ' '''k t:'':i-1- '''44a0k 't - '1 1 - !Issj':7 :i 1: t--- -- ::::j4 E1 John Updike Bids Farewell to Rabbit for Rabbit meant simply ing up in a motel bed with his novel end- own wife Ten years later Comet Harry orbited through again in Rabbit Is Rich (1981) On the Carter-Reaga- n cusp Rabbit now 46 found himself a successful middle-ageToyota dealer successor to his father-in-laAccustomed to the good life comfortable around Brewer Rabbit golfed drank and fooled around Still married to Janice after 23 years he jaunted to Bermuda with g her for Rabbit remained a wire service to his era voicing concerns about OPEC pricing TV shows like "The Waltons" the Iran hostage crisis Nelson a 23- tenden year-ol- d showing Rabbit-lik- e d spouse-swappin- Marriott Library lecture today David L Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith will be the guest speaker Sun day at 3 pm in the first of this sea"books and authors" son's sessions at the University of Utah J Willard Marriott Library Auditorium Sponsored by the Friends of the University of Utah Libraries and funded in part by the Utah Endowment for the Humanities the lecture will focus on the Mormon Battalion march in the Mexican War Bigler will discuss the battalion trek from Fort Leavenworth Kans to the Pacific Coast in 1847 — the longest infantry march in American military history — during the war with Mexico He is a descendant of battalion member Azariah Smith te who also was present at the original discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in January 1848 Bigler is a retired director of public affairs for US Steel Corp charter president of the Utah Westerners and charter president of the Crossroads Chapter of the Oregon California Trails Assn Admission to "Afternoons at the Marriott" is free and open to the public said Frances Hoopes Friends of the Libraries chairwoman The events are intended to reacquaint the community with the Marriott Library while providing an opportunity for readers to meet Utah authors ask questions and mingle with other "bookies" in an atmosphere of congenial informality Femurs clavicles in Icy Clutches ers mention the killing He's now a TV personality and he's on the scene as well gathered with relatives of the avalanche victims to review his soon-to-b- e published book about the expedition and set up a memorial for those who were killed The Olivers are the sort of people you'd like to have as friends warmly human and fun to be with so is their FBI agent friend who's assigned to the case since there is no local police department to investigate That alone would make this a pleasant read but Elkins also provides a stimulating puzzle and those of us who don't know a clavicle from a femur actually might learn a thing or two as well — Sharon Miller UPI Icy Clutches by Aaron Elkins Mysterious Press 304 pp $1695 Aaron Elkins has a nice light touch for someone who's writing about murder and using the scientific terminology of forensic anthropology In Icy Clutches Gideon Oliver aka the Skeleton Detective goes to Alaska as spouse on his wife's business trip which puts him on the scene when human bones turn up on the edge of a glacier It's obvious they belong to one or more members of a party of scientists mowed down by an avalanche 30 years earlier The problem is Oliver's study of the bones proves that one of the group was killed by an ax shortly before the slide The question is why didn't the only scientist found alive by search New Yorker reviews of world litera- des returned home from college st Bigler editor of The Gold tradition of literary recyclag time-honore- d trailing two women one of them pregnant Now if Updike can be trusted the comet returns for a final star turn circa 1989 Rabbit at 55 still stands 6- feet-- 3 still notices the crevices in women's clothing But his jump shot usually lacks snap and his head fakes take place in his own head He weighs 230 pounds scratches himself with keratotic hands and often experiences "a crowded feeling in his chest" He is "a float of a man in a parade of dependents" Rabbit and Janice now pass half the year in a southwestern Florida condo community The first section of Rabbit at Rest languorously chronicles a visit to the folks by Nelson his wife Pm and Rabbit's two grandchildren Judy and Roy It's not a happy occasion Nelson current boss at the Toyota dealership siphons off money to feed a major coke habit Like the son in Harry Chapin's classic song Nelson marginalizes his father because he's grown up just like him — selfish g In Rabbit's mind he and and fading His own son is "fifty-fiv- e can't stand to be in the same room with him" As the kids prepare to return north Rabbit suffers what every aging Northerner in Florida expects to experience besides Disney World — a heart attack The rest of the book captures Rabbit as for the first time his fears of death pack punch Nearing 60 Updike as technician remains America's greatest master of brilliantly opinionated description the last American novelist who regularly humiliates photography by beating it with better film — the uncanny verbal acetate on which he records the familiar from fresh idiosyncratic angles The focus can be a kissing sound or the we all know ("Mmmm-wah!"- ) q:Ilt $alt gakt 1 t Ztibunt hard-workin- ct post-infar- depressed man" Whether the Rabbit and Updike amount to one has always been the big question for critics of the Rabbit books who ritually describe Rabbit as Updike's doppeland alter ego Is ganger nether-twi- n Rabbit's mind-se- t Updike's "Weltanschauung"? Should we impute Rabbit's obsession with sex his frequent misogyny and racism his habitual conservatism to Updike — as if Rabbit allowed Updike to vent his spleen unfiltered by literary and Ivy League proprieties? Can Rabbit whose mind rarely wanders beyond the cultural playpens of sports and TV really reflect the worldview of Updike a man who advertises his vast cultural ambition in prolific word-portra- it er but characters entertain dependent on farming fishing and trading have observed and taken sides in the feud Georgie however is not only considered an adopted daughter to the Talcotts but is also best friends with the Grimes' adopted son Sinjin nicknamed for his commitment to sin and gin While the families could simply avoid each other in their everyday routines two unavoidable events take place the first Saturday of June 1828 that alter their lives and perhaps someday will make allies of their enemies The story becomes a cliche as boy meets girl Sinjin Grimes falls in love with Aurora Talcott but like Romeo and Juliet the two cannot be together because of family disapproval Tryon remains silent about the future of the romance and the reader is ultimately left with other unknowns But Georgie has enough problems philosophies friendships and acquaintances to keep the reader entertained to the end: Georgie's father Tom Ross is a religious zealot who continuously shouts of hell and damnation to the townspeople believing he has been chosen to build an ark before the Second Coming While at first he appears to be a harmless family embarrassment Dad becomes crazier placing impossible demands on himself and his family Not living at home Georgie is constantly concerned for The Wings of the Morning by Thomas Tryon Alfred Knopf & Co 568 pp $2295 Like the storms of the Atlantic Ocean Thomas Tryon's new novel begins with deceptive calm and ends tumultuously The Wings of the Morning is the first installment of Tryon's trilogy Kingdom Come Set in a 19th century Connecticut township the story revolves around the stormy relationship between two leading families The book is clearly an introduction to the remaining two volumes and the author spends most of the nearly 600 pages introducing characters and setting the plot Except for a cataclysmic conclusion action is almost nonexistent but it is not the action that makes the story intriguing It is rather the characters eloquently woven into a web of circumstances who draw the reader in much like a viewer of an afternoon television soap opera The central character Georgiana Ross is the eldest daughter of the g comtown's miller A passionate girl Georgie is well loved among Pequot Landing's wealthy and poor alike earning extra money as a housemaid for one of the most prestigious families the Talcotts Vying for the Talcotts' social position is the Grimes family Although it is never explained the two families are violent enemies For generations the people of this little port town 1 long-sufferi- self-center- Wings lacks action dovetailing than the previous books Any author willing to reprise a protagonist three times must see him fairly often in the bathroom mirror That may harm Updike's reputation in the long run One imagines that Updike's ultimate academic critics will debate whether for all his pointillist brillance he isn't the George Bush of fin de siecle American letters a man with the best vita around but still a bit short on the vision thing That aside good literary recycling like other kinds satisfies con- sumers by making efficient use of old material Volume 4 of the Rabbit Chronicles more than its predecessors does that wedding Rabbit's low spirits to richly familiar time posts The death from lupus of his longtime in mistress Thelma the self-pit- y surveying his old Pennsylvania hangouts through eyes all make Rabbit's downturn convincing Depressed or not Updike clearly regards this book as the completion of a monument In a recent article he proudly talked of his tetralogy's formal unity: "Each book occurs in the ninth year of a decade and was' written more or less in the ninth year of the decade" He acknowledged that "a motive of the artistic is the completion of sets" life Rabbit at Rest is just that It closes the author's exhaustive description of his "big pale uncircumcised hunk of the American dream" John Updike now boasts his Remembrance of Things Past an epic of "Homo erectus" hardly extinct but slipping fast in Pennsylvania Vision aside the monument should last Just as long because no video technology captures what this man sees — Carlin Romano Knight-RiddNewspapers BR eolioe wk resents the "muffin-top- " haircuts of young blacks as "an ugly style" Janice Looking at his finally a friend and increasingly feminist he notes that she "has become a great warmer-u- p of leftovers in the microwave She was always a minimal housewife and now the technology has caught up with her" For all the bravado Rabbit knows he's nearing the end He "feels as if the human race is a vast colorful Jostling bristling parade in which he is limping and falling behind" Still the dyspepsia remains Back in Brewer after the heart attack looking over the town's deterioration he thinks "We're turning into mad dogs — the human race is one big swamp of viruses" Writing recently about this final volume Updike said it could be called "a depressed book about a depressed man written by a shape of a car ("From the back the way they've designed the trunk and bumper a Camaro seems to have a mouth two fat metal lips parted as if to hiss") He can casually embrace a deep truth in a throwaway clause ("He picks up little Roy whose body weight has been doubled by boredom ") or an everyday insight in an everyday sentence ("Funny how your wife reading the newspaper can make every item in it look fascinating and then when you look yourself It all turns dull") Predictably Updike proves devastating on Florida Rabbit's terrain is now those "shimmering flat Florida miles full of big white soupy power steered American cars being driven by old people so shrunken they can hardly see over the hood Any time you get somewhere without a head-o- n collision is a tribute to the geriat" ric medicine To Rabbit's mind "the whole state babies you" It's a place in which "even friendship has a thin provisional quality since people might at any minute buy another condominium and move to it or else up and die" Beyond the groomed lots "they're out there the criminals watching and waiting for the security guards to nod so the fortress of sleeping retirees can be stormed" Sentence by sentence it glimmers Yet Rabbit as human being remains the casually racist terminally ego we know from earlier books a domineering personality who speaks his crude mind He wonders whether "we haven't gone overboard in catering to cripples" and self-pityin- I ture? Rabbit at Rest suggests a greater g of her mother and the younger brothers and sisters Georgie is kind to an Indian women named Gypsy Cinnamon the town's scapegoat who administers medicine with great success having once saved Aurora's life Cinnamon has convincingly accurate prophesies Although the basic plot is familiar is easy and entertaining as well as chaste This story makes one suspicious of designs for a televis sion Tryon does a wonderful job at writing in a way that makes the read er develop a growing attachment to each of his characters The action however begins so late that it seems a ploy to hook the reader into buying installments two and three still in production — Jill Johnson The Salt Lake Tribune well-bein- the reading mini-serie- Georgie teaches Cinnamon's nephew how to adopted read and write Ambo is kept chained to a tree a savage thought to be deaf and dumb half-bree- d Best Sellers New t INISt's look Suitt L The CNN War Word and Owns 4 Not to Oho Nook Mancini! old Times Service York The Wings below MO based on sales figures from 2000 bookstores United Stales compulerixoceued In evety region or Me tow I Weeks On UV Week 1 6 2 9 I 3 4 5 4 6 Datums Maio Won loolisagoes Soy Suttiet and Wake S Now Yot know Maki and latt 2 The Burden el Proof Two li Moue Pecos tome 7 Oh The Mons Yout Sews &Surrender the Pint Fishei Me Women in its We 210004 US Me Mond King lien4lietion tee 4 34 3 6 I $ '0 23 Mk lad Weeks Week Week I in Way et Deception lad a I Weeks On U81 Lad Week 1 tiont000lnino Itodshow I 13 1 WooNS VnIttati Molt Ghwns Yawn's Westio tiontold 1ho Oteat Violdo Non 2 3 11 2 told Webotots I 44 6 196 lank Now Cologtoto Cnotionory Webs (CoP1901) Ocltovsky cmd Hoy 4 2 7 214 Week 12 Oot 4 11 13 Macy N10 SOK twinge 41 bunan SurAlti ot the lop 11 hump Mein lbw illsoollonotmt II II 3 6 4 we tomb b Gordo I non kW Week I Pow Past Midnight King 2 litionoriee el Midnight Sheldon Lady lose Collins His loincloth 4 The 3 Just Don1 lindonkmd I S You Fiction This 2 — Nk411 1 - Weve got a very funny feelmg about this Symphony concert Fresh Fl owers Icot l'A 4 l' s ''':1: '" ': 1 It " f r ' C 7 i A- ' ' ' '-2)! ' - ) - - W 4 i 1 4 a'41 t -st 1 -- floral hues Want on ' 1 40 t i s ' '" BGB 6 dress hi si i Da- - a li sizes M 6 't hishion Dresses '1' ''4'' 1 ' I 'ici:!N t1 I - ()'t 1 7 ‘ 101:40" But maybe that's because Steve Allen is a very funny guy Aside from his knack for comic relief Steve Allen is also an accomplished singer composer and pianist with over 4000 songs and 30 albums to his credit Not a bad way to spend an evening Please join Steve Allen in concert with the Utah Symphony for tickets or visit the October 20th in Symphony Hall Call Hall Box Office Symphony r ''fi '' I t ( I plib 1 ! : 4 cv II kilo t Itak 1 (I 321-713- s hitL 1 i 1 r4 ' ''''''4 r j:17-- : C5KSI Joseph Silverstein Minn Director KSI 1760 :s ‘ P- 1 il ir ' 1 i 1i 0 I I ' it l' N ' i Ill IP A Friday October 26 1990 A i 1 if ff -of ‘i f TICKET 5248364 : 4 - o- Ow' i cf I 4 5 - 41 Donation $20 INFORMATION: e- - 4 e NA I II i ': E UTAH SYMPHONY l' : v (Notf 714 - tmdhill II Iii i Phwe 1 :' I - ' 321-711- lit Definitely "TOO HOT" Backstage Party ? hshion ii Al I Arti - etn lio t ''''' - knotthrldagario I - iii'lit fGroup and students half price) t'04 14 t A 111 ' Single Tickets $12 $15 $25 44 in 4 -: th" treas04ii:' pm Capitol Theatre 8:00 iyi 41A7A 1:1' -- 41 'Ii l':'i11:!: h' Saturday October 27 1990 t It 1 '41'"'' Friday October 26 and 0 The my drop-wai- A is4 ground Vo( g'' H t4 '' t: 1 I 4 ft 9 "VIDEO VISIONS" i HEAT! HI-TEC- a dramatic black P 4 - 'e44 garden variety rearm 1 : "40$A $1 -- ---- J i : ''''i t (—A J 0 - s 4 Beyond the 1 ' 7 t--- I er4 'tie N i d' - r!" re'St" ' - : 42 z 141i sk V ' 4 14 104111!"?1:1V 44— - t'''' e: - 11 - Its z I4 IZN 1 nock :"'It 0 4C '''' - 0 2' v -- : : i I rirleywoodbury-- 1 10 DAM 1 COMPA‘I |
