Download or read book Updike and the Patriarchal Dilemma written by Mary O'Connell and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 demonstrate patterns of psychological and physical abuse toward women, citing as the culminating example the mounting toll of literally or metaphorically dead women in the texts.