Friday, August 10, 2018

Ten titles to read before getting divorced

Jeff Somers is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series from Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and the Ustari Cycle from Pocket/Gallery, including We Are Not Good People. At the B&N Reads blog he tagged ten books for those considering divorce, titles that "will offer perspective, advice, and entertainment, and just might make the decision easier for you, whatever you choose." One entry on the list:
The Rabbit Angstrom Novels, by John Updike

John Updike was a writer with myriad obsessions, and they all came together in the four-book, decades-in-the-writing saga of flawed but fascinating Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, who attempts to abandon his young family in book one and doesn’t make life any less complicated for himself as the decades rush on. What you end up with is, in large part, one of the most finely-detailed accounts of the ups and downs of a marriage in literary history. Considered as a whole, Rabbit’s race through life offers the sort of minute study of a relationship that will force you to reconsider you own.
Read about the other books on the list.

Updike's Rabbit books figure among Peter Stanford's top ten Protestants in fiction, Eliza Kennedy's top ten merry adulterers in literature, Sue Townsend's six best books, Julian Barnes's best books to travel with, William Sutcliffe's top ten relationship novels, and Aifric Campbell's top ten favorite jobs in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue