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A tripping point for some readers of Updike, and of the Rabbit tetralogy in particular, is the consistently low, self-indulgent moral level of so many unhappy, confused protagonists. The reader is simultaneously amazed by Updike’s ability to write so well about everything and perplexed about why the author invests such ability in so much low life. Bailey takes such criticism into account in this important contribution to the critical tradition of theologically oriented reading of Updike and his signature creation. Like his creator (i.e., Updike), this tradition maintains, Rabbit is tortured by finding no God actively manifesting a presence in human affairs. Bailey invokes Updike’s writing on Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, and Whitman’s egotheism, and also Updike’s own work, especially David Kern and Clarence Wilmont in the Olinger stories and In the Beauty of the Lilies. He masterfully explains Updike’s project in the Rabbit series: the need and search for spirituality in a materialistic, often secular America in the middle and late 20th century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

S. Miller, Texas A&M University
Choice, July/August 2006