Mary O Connell examines the role of socially constructed masculinity in John Updike s Rabbit tetralogy"Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, "and "Rabbit at Rest"which comprises the longest and most comprehensive representation of masculinity in American literature and places Updike firmly with the precursors of the contemporary movement among men to reevaluate their cultural inheritance.

A disturbing element exists, O Connell determines, in both the texts of the Rabbit novels and in the critical community that examines them. In the novels, O Connell finds substantial evidence to...