Rabbit Run and other things literature

I've replaced a few Scotch benders with a reading bender. I just finished Rabbit Run, John Updike's first book published in 1960, I believe. I'm sure it was rather scandalous at the time, but now is pretty tame. It very well may have paved the way for Philip Roth and other major 60's writers who dealt with coarser subject matter. Just wondering if anyone else has read this and would like to discuss further. I've never read a book before where there was not one likable or remotely sympathetic character.

I think this is one of the things that makes the book grittily realistic...there is no such thing as pure good. I've read books with less sympathetic protagonists...the main character in Irvine Welsh's "Filth" comes to mind, and some might argue that Ignatius from A Confederacy of Dunces is irredeemably bad.

On another literary note, rumors abound from the Christianist-nanny goat right that they will be putting the full-court press on the upcoming movie, "The Golden Compass." This is because the writer, Philip Pullman, is one of the most outspoken atheists in England, and they believe the book/movie is a sinister plot to cleanse their children from religion. I read the book, and while there are definitely anti-religious overtones...the church is portrayed as a "magisterium," I don't think there is too much atheism that a child will be able to glean. The Catholic church and the current religious right only wish that they were a "magisterium." Kids'll like the big armored polar bears and will be oblivious to any message.

I read Richard Ford's "Lay of the Land" which finishes off his trilogy that began with "The Sportwriter." It was excellent despite a strange twist at the end that was probably unnecessary.

Other recent readings: The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald, reread), Shakespeare (bio, Bill Bryson), Thunderbolt Kid (memoir, Bill Bryson), Freakonomics (Dubner, Levitt)