Rabbit is Rich

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

Toby Jones

John Updike

Robin Brooks

Clive Brill

Rabbit Is Rich: Episode 4

Rabbit Is Rich

Episode 4

BBC Radio 4 - Rabbit Is Rich, Episode 4

Harry finally finds out the truth about Nelson and Melanie.

By John Updike. Harry finally finds out the truth about Nelson and Melanie.

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 was the second in the series, published in 1971 and charted the end of the sixties - featuring, among other things, the first American moon landing and the Vietnam War. 

This third book finds Rabbit in middle age and successful, having inherited his father in law's car business - selling newly imported Toyotas to the mass American market. But his relationship with his son Nelson was severely compromised by Rabbit's affair with Jill and her subsequent death has left them both wary of each other. 

Published in 1981, Rabbit is Rich won Updike, among other awards, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - and it's extraordinary how many of its themes continue to reverberate down to the present day.


Abridged by Robin Brooks
Read by Toby Jones
Produced by Clive Brill
A Brill production for BBC Radio 4.

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

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama: Psychological

Serialised reading of John Updike's 1981 novel. Read by Toby Jones.

Serialised reading of John Updike's 1981 novel about quintessential American white middle class male Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom. Read by Toby Jones. Abridged by Robin Brooks.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Rabbit Is Rich

Episode 4

Contributors

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4