{"id":7101,"date":"2026-08-09T08:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=7101"},"modified":"2026-08-09T08:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:04:20","slug":"updike-novel-makes-top-10-list-of-80s-pulitzer-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/08\/09\/updike-novel-makes-top-10-list-of-80s-pulitzer-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Updike novel makes Top 10 list of &#8217;80s Pulitzer winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Writing for\u00a0<em>Women,\u00a0<\/em>Emily Hutchinson posted an August 9, 2026 aggregate story on &#8220;Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels From The 80&#8217;s, Ranked by Reviews&#8221; on Goodreads.<\/p>\n<p>The list is in some ways surprising, with the biggest tip of the hat going to retired Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, who captivated readers of Larry McMurtry&#8217;s Western novel <em>Lonesome Dove<\/em>. Coming in second was another historical novel, Alice Walker&#8217;s <em>The Color Purple.\u00a0<\/em>Curiously, Norman Mailer&#8217;s <em>The Executioner&#8217;s Song<\/em> captured third place ahead of Toni Morrison&#8217;s <em>Beloved<\/em>, followed by Updike&#8217;s <em>Rabbit Is Rich<\/em> in fifth place.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2021\/04\/09\/times-writer-argues-on-behalf-of-great-male-literary-figures\/rabbit_updike-copy\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5113\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5113\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/04\/Rabbit_Updike-copy-300x167.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/04\/Rabbit_Updike-copy-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/04\/Rabbit_Updike-copy-500x278.png 500w, https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/04\/Rabbit_Updike-copy-768x426.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/04\/Rabbit_Updike-copy.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Hutchinson noted, &#8220;At the time of writing, the book has an average score of 3.93 from over 18,100 ratings. More than one five-star review claimed <em>Rabbit Is Rich<\/em> had improved on <em>Rabbit Redux<\/em>, while other&#8217;s were quick to heap praise on Updike&#8217;s writing style. &#8216;What makes this book so good is the balance between comedy and sadness. Rabbit is older and more comfortable, but not wiser in any simple way,&#8217; one wrote. Another noted the book contains outdated themes and language, plus graphic themes, but shared, &#8216;For those of you who can understand that that&#8217;s all part of the character and part of the times, you will accept this for the masterpiece it is.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.women.com\/2230362\/pulitzer-prize-winning-novels-from-80s-ranked-by-reviews\/\">https:\/\/www.women.com\/2230362\/pulitzer-prize-winning-novels-from-80s-ranked-by-reviews\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Writing for\u00a0Women,\u00a0Emily Hutchinson posted an August 9, 2026 aggregate story on &#8220;Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels From The 80&#8217;s, Ranked by Reviews&#8221; on Goodreads. The list is in some ways surprising, with the biggest tip of the hat going to retired &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/08\/09\/updike-novel-makes-top-10-list-of-80s-pulitzer-winners\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7103,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}