Rabbit Is Rich is surprising in that Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom has fallen into a dreary un eventual a predictable life that he once wanted to avoid. Then again, maybe it makes sense that his great escape only resulted in a move across town.

He is back with his wife. He works at his late father-in-law's care dealership. He works alongside the man who once had an affair with his wife. He golfs. He jogs. He buys silver. He drifts through life.

With the exception of occasionally reflecting on life's brief interruption with Skeeter and Jill, Harry might have carried on this way to the end of the time. He cannot, however, because his son Nelson has prematurely returned from college to disrupt the general order of things. Nelson influences his mother and grandmother to land himself a place at the dealership where can implement a series of crazy ideas like selling convertibles to an America running out of gas or snowmobiles to people who might one day move north.

The disruption reminds Harry of how little control he has over his life once again, and takes him on a journey of investigation, self-reflection, and freedom from the handcuffs of parenthood. Harry even drives around looking for Ruth, whom he deserted in ''Rabbit, Run'' (and who may be the mother of his daughter). And meanwhile, Janice and Harry and their country-club cronies fly off for a Caribbean holiday and some wife-swapping — only to have Harry's wild fantasies with a specific wife disrupted when Nelson decides to run away from his obligations prompting Janice to end the trip early.

Of course, there are also those occasional John Updike insights that will stick with you forever. One of my favorites: What you lose with age is witnesses, the ones that watched you from early on and cared, like your own little grandstand.