Updike adaptation will bring feminist touch to his male tale
Screenwriter Andrew Davies promises a bigger voice for women in his version of Rabbit, Run
JOHN UPDIKE once lamented the fact that “feminist detractors” disliked his Rabbit stories. A television adaptation from the master of BBC bodice-rippers looks set to change that.
Andrew Davies is adapting the tale of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, one of the standout characters in American 20th century literature, and fans of the books will see a notable difference in the way female characters are portrayed.
Davies is writing extra scenes for Angstrom’s wife and mistress, redressing the gender imbalance and taking into account the views of a female script editor who expressed concerns about the sexual politics in the books.
He will adapt the four Rabbit novels, beginning with the 1961 bestseller Rabbit, Run, in which Harry longs to escape his tedious suburban existence and unhappy marriage. Harry cheats on Janice, his depressed and pregnant wife, with Ruth, a former prostitute.
Speaking at the Hay Festival, Davies said: “This is one of the advantages of working with younger people. We have a script editor in her mid-20s and she’s had some problems with bits of Rabbit, Run… We do want people, if not to love Rabbit, at least to understand him.
“And some of the things have been a bit difficult for a young, intelligent female to cope with.”
The adaptation is being made by Lookout Point, the production company part-owned by BBC Worldwide which has made a number of BBC period dramas including War and Peace, also scripted by Davies, who said he hoped the adaptation would eliminate the idea that Updike, who died in 2009, was a misogynist.
“I think his insight into both men and women is just so extraordinary. This lazy way that people talk about him being misogynist – this is something we’re going to just wipe out, really, when they see just how richly empathetic and imaginative these books are.”
Asked if men no longer behave towards women in the way they did in the 1960s, Davies replied: “I think they behave exactly the same now but it’s kind of wrong now.”
Rabbit, Run has been adapted once before, in a 1970 film starring James Caan as the anti-hero, a former basketball champion turned used car salesman. Updike always maintained he was surprised and hurt to learn that some women found his work problematic.
He told the New York Times: “I think of myself as a man who’s had plenty to do with women in many capacities, beginning with my mother, and two daughters, and two wives, and a lot of female editors – women have been colleagues of mine as well as domestic companions, and I never thought of myself as anything in my role as a novelist but fair and sympathetic.
“But what comes up when you venture before college audiences is that there aren’t enough women in my books who have jobs, they’re not career-minded, they’re merely wives, sex objects and purely domestic creatures.”
The Rabbit novels are one of several projects that Davies has on the go. He is also adapting Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy for the BBC.
The 81-year-old said: “It gives me something to stay alive for. And I’ve bought a new car. I certainly want to get my money’s worth out of that.”
‘ This lazy way that people talk about him being misogynist – this is something we’re going to just wipe out, really’