RABBIT RUN by John Updike

Finished We 3/7/18

My impression of the book-

From 1960 the first book written in the series, but not the first in the timeline of the books.
Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom feels trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job (he hawks 'kitchen peelers' in dime and department stores), and jettisons his whole life.
He leaves his wife, Janice- who is pregnant, then drives to West Virginia (he lives in Mt. Judge/ Brewer, Pennsylvania) and ends up at his high school coach's house. This man takes him in, and later introduces him to a woman, Ruth, who is a kind of low level escort. She's not happy with him, and he's not happy with her, but they shoulder on. When he learns that his wife is in delivery, he returns, and tries to take up where they were. It doesn't work. Janice has stopped drinking, but takes it up again. One drunken, lonely afternoon, she accidently drowns the new born, Rebecca June. Nelson, Harry and Janice's two year old son is in the apartment at the time of the incident. At the funeral, Harry feels much guilt about his actions, and as the casket is lowered, he turns to Janice and blurts out, "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't kill her"!. Then, he runs from the cemetery, and continues to run into the forest.   
Very much a downer; dour and depressing.

The plot summary from wikipedia-

"Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, formerly a high school basketball star, is now 26, and has a job selling a kitchen gadget named MagiPeeler. He is married to Janice, who was a salesgirl at the store where he once worked, and who is now pregnant. They live in Mount Judge, a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania, and have a two-year-old son named Nelson. Harry finds middle-class family life unsatisfying, and, on the spur of the moment, he leaves his family and drives south in an attempt to "escape". After getting lost, he returns to his home town, but not wanting to return to his family, he instead visits his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero.

That night, Harry has dinner with Tothero and two girls, one of whom, Ruth Leonard, is a part-time prostitute. Harry and Ruth begin a two-month affair and he soon moves into her apartment. During this time, Janice moves back into her parents' house and the local Episcopal priest, Jack Eccles, befriends Harry in a futile attempt to get him to reconcile with his wife. Nonetheless, Harry remains with Ruth until the night he learns that she had a fling with his high school nemesis, Ronnie Harrison. Enraged, Harry coerces Ruth into performing fellatio on him. The same night, Harry learns that Janice is in labor, and he leaves Ruth to visit his wife at the hospital.

Reunited with Janice, Harry returns home with her and their daughter, named Rebecca June. Harry attends church one morning and, after walking the minister's wife Lucy home, interprets her invitation to come in for a coffee as a sexual advance. When he declines the invitation for coffee, stating that he has a wife, she angrily slams the door on him. Harry returns to his apartment, and, happy about the birth of his daughter, tries to reconcile with Janice. He encourages her to have a whiskey, then, misreading her mood, pressures her to have sex despite her postnatal condition. When she refuses and accuses him of treating her like a prostitute, Harry masturbates onto her and then leaves in an attempt to resume his relationship with Ruth. Finding her apartment empty, he spends the night at a hotel.

The next morning, still distraught at Harry's treatment of her, Janice gets drunk and accidentally drowns Rebecca June in the bath tub. The other main characters in the book except Harry soon learn of the accident and gather at Janice's parents' home. Later in the day, unaware of what has happened, Harry calls Reverend Eccles to see how his return home would be received. Reverend Eccles shares the news of his daughter's death, and Harry returns home. Tothero later visits Harry and suggests that the thing he is looking for probably does not exist. At Rebecca June's funeral, Harry's internal and external conflicts result in a sudden proclamation of his innocence in the baby's death. He then runs from the graveyard, pursued by Jack Eccles, until he becomes lost.

Harry returns to Ruth and learns that she is pregnant by him. Though Harry is relieved to discover she has not had an abortion, he is unwilling to divorce Janice. Harry abandons Ruth, still missing the feeling he has attempted to grasp during the course of the novel; his fate is uncertain as the novel concludes."