Rabbit Redux 

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Toby Jones

John Updike

Eileen Horne

Clive Brill

Rabbit Redux by John Updike: 6. Friend in Need

Rabbit Redux

6. Friend in Need

Rabbit Redux by John Updike

BBC Radio 4 - Rabbit Redux by John Updike, 6. Friend in Need

Jill brings home a friend in need. A Vietnam vet with a worrying addiction.

Jill brings home a friend, Janice wants a divorce, and Harry is caught between a rock and a hard place. Read by Toby Jones.

Jill brings home a friend in need, Janice asks Harry for a divorce, and Harry is caught between a rock and a hard place, scared by all these sudden and drastic changes.

John Updike's masterful Rabbit quintet established Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom as the quintessential American White middle class male. The first book Rabbit, Run was published in 1960 to critical acclaim. Rabbit Redux is the second in the series, published in 1971 and charting the end of the sixties - featuring, among other things, the first American moon landing and the Vietnam War. 

Despite its very strong language, sex, and reflection of racist attitudes of the time, Time Magazine said of the book and its author, "Updike owns a rare verbal genius, a gifted intelligence and a sense of tragedy made bearable by wit. A masterpiece."

It's extraordinary how many of its themes reverberate down to the present day.

Abridged in ten parts by Eileen Horne. 

Read by Toby Jones.

Producer: Clive Brill

A Brill production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in December 2017.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Drama: Psychological

Serialised reading of John Updike's 1971 novel. Read by Toby Jones.

Serialised reading of John Updike's 1971 novel about quintessential American white middle class male Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom. Read by Toby Jones. Abridged by Eileen Horne.

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Rabbit Redux by John Updike

6. Friend in Need

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