'Rabbit is Rich' by John Updike

 Amita, Joe, Talitha, KumKum, Thommo, and Bobby

The group had a ripping session on Friday Mar 20, 2009. Updike's novel, Rabbit is Rich, provoked such intense discussions that we went on for two hours. It was the first time we were reading an American author.

Everyone had prepared insightful readings, and we were quite animated, discussing various issues the novel brings up: sex mores, father-son relationships, women as sex-objects, humour, the interior monologue style of writing, instances where Harry Angstrom fades out and Updike interjects himself into the novel, poetic passages, soft porn, and other issues.

Shevlin Sebastian of the Indian Express interviewing Talitha

Mr Shevlin Sebastian from the Indian Express newspaper wished to write an article, so we invited him to come along and attend the session. It turned out he was a long-time Updike enthusiast himself, and he participated too, providing such sidelights as Updike's having a different room in his house for each type of composition: one for writing novels, another for reviews, yet another for poetry, and so on. 

His article was published in The New Indian Express, Kochi, on Mar 25, 2009. Here is a link to it: Where Books Steal the Show
 

Our next session will be Poetry - an all-Shakespeare session on May 1 - his birthday falls on April 23. Indira’s idea of taking up a play once a year, and letting Harold Pinter be the first chosen, was approved. At this session we introduced a new feature, remote participation: Indira who was absent sent in her impressions on e-mail; it was read out first, and the discussion started off in earnest.

A full account is here:Record of the Fiction Session on Mar 20, 2009