Rabbit Stew

By PAUL GRAY/

Giving away the ending of a movie or novel is considered very bad form. But for weeks Manhattan's literary gossip has been twittering with the news that John Updike's Rabbit at Rest, which will be published in October, concludes with the death of its hero. What's more, Updike himself has been fueling this story, both in a June speech at the American Booksellers' Association convention in Las Vegas and in the New York Times Book Review. How to explain all this fuss about the fate of an imaginary character? Well, Harry C. ("Rabbit") Angstrom first appeared 30 years ago in Rabbit, Run and then re-emerged in Rabbit Redux (1971) and Rabbit Is Rich (1981). A lot of readers have periodically checked the progress of their lives against that of the onetime high school basketball star from eastern Pennsylvania. Rabbit's demise seems a gloomy reminder of individual mortality. Fortunately, despite all the chatter, there is an escape clause. In his Times essay, Updike never explicitly says Rabbit dies. Neither, as readers will discover in two months, does Rabbit at Rest.

With reporting by DAVID ELLIS