The Author: Brian Keener is Chair of the English Department at New York City College of Technology of The City University of New York. He received his Ph.D. in American literature at the Graduate School and University Center of the City of New York.
The comedy in John Updike’s most important works – The Centaur; Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; and Rabbit Remembered – defines a comic world and its morality. Although critics have failed to recognize the extent and the importance of Updike’s comedy, his serious fiction does contain a good deal of farce, burlesque, and irony that, far from being peripheral or mere comic relief, depicts the absurd and contradictory nature of life.