The talented Mr. Updike (cont'd) …

… Adam Begley’s ‘Updike’ - NYTimes.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Unlike historical novels that look back in time to events they describe, the Rabbit novels were about life as it unfolds; Rabbit’s adventures functioned as a social history of sorts, each installment a summary and a representation of the previous 10 years — as Updike himself wrote in his introduction to the Everyman’s Library edition of the series, “a kind of running report on the state of my hero and his nation.” The fact that Rabbit is a demonic, ethically troubled but also entirely ordinary character, together with Updike’s signature richness of style and his use of the present tense (one of the peculiarities of the Rabbit series), all serve to steer these novels away from didacticism and banality, dangers that can plague chronicles and social novels. 

I read Rabbit, Run while I was in college an detested it. This is actually a kind of back-handed tcompliment. Updike brought his hero so much to life that I loathed him as I would have had he been real.