"Rabbit at Rest" is the fourth and final book in John Updike's excellent tetralogy chronicling the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.
Rabbit is 56 years old, overweight, and suffering from heart problems. He is retired and lives half of each year in Florida, where he spends much of his time playing golf. His son Nelson now runs the family car dealership.
But Nelson has developed a cocaine habit and is stealing from the dealership to pay off his exorbitant debt to his drug dealers.
The reader cannot help but feel for Rabbit. Much of what happens to him is out of his control. But his shallowness and innate selfishness remain and prevent us from embracing him. Rabbit has always been self-absorbed, but he takes it to a new level in this volume. His married neighbor Thelma is in love with Rabbit, which leads to a years-long affair. Rabbit, of course, feels no emotional connection to Thelma but gladly accepts her sex. Late in the book, Rabbit betrays those close to him. When confronted, he runs away and blames everyone but himself. The passage below reveals how self-centered he is.
"This is the worst thing you've ever done, ever, ever," Janice tells him. "The absolute worst. That time you ran away, and then Peggy, my best friend, and that poor hippie girl, and Thelma—don't think for one moment I didn't know about Thelma—but now you've done something truly unforgivable."
"Really?" The word comes out with an unintended hopeful lilt.
"I will never forgive you. Never," Janice says, returning to a dead-level tone.
"Don't say that," he begs. "It was just a crazy moment that didn't hurt anybody. Whajou put me and her in the same house at night for? Whajou think I was, dead already?"
Updike wrote one final novella ("Rabbit Remembered") in this series, but that story takes place after Angstrom's death, so "Rest" concludes
Harry's life story. This book is a fitting conclusion to a lifelong ride.