[Rabbit is Rich] is more than the author's best work in many years. It is a beautifully written, compassionate, knowing and wise novel by an at-last mature writer working at a level he has always had the capacity to attain, but seemed destined never to reach. Even near the end, when God is once again descried by Harry Angstrom hiding in a hitherto unsuspected aperture, most readers, I think, will be sufficiently grateful and, yes, moved by what has gone before that they will grant Updike his obsession and let it go at that.

One has only to compare Rabbit is Rich with its predecessor in the Angstrom series to see how far Updike has brought himself. Rabbit Redux was awful for reasons both mimetic and technical. As a portrayal of American life, it was so heavy-handed and humorless as to take on the texture of propaganda. Updike...