Rabbit at Rest characters

Also known as Rabbit

Appears from the start

A fifty-five-year-old former basketball star who divides his time between Pennsylvania and a Florida condominium. Harry is prosperous and retired from daily work at the family Toyota dealership, but he is badly overweight, short of breath, and resistant to medical advice. He remains observant, anxious, self-absorbed, and instinctively ready to retreat from family demands.

Appears from the start

Harry's wife and the owner of Springer Motors through her family inheritance. Janice has grown more confident and practical with age. She enjoys their comfortable Florida life but continues developing interests and work of her own, no longer willing to let Harry define the limits of her world.

Appears from the start

Harry and Janice's adult son, now responsible for much of the family car business. Nelson is married to Pru and has two children, but his longstanding anger toward Harry and his need for approval remain unresolved. At the opening, his erratic conduct and the dealership's worsening finances suggest a crisis he is concealing.

Appears from the start

Nelson's wife and the mother of Judy and Roy. Pru is steadier than her husband and increasingly burdened by his drug use, infidelity, and dishonesty. She tries to protect the children and preserve the marriage while insisting that the Angstrom family recognize the seriousness of Nelson's condition.

Appears from the start

Nelson and Pru's young daughter and Harry's granddaughter. Judy is lively, affectionate, and one of the few family members who draws an uncomplicated protective response from Harry.

Appears from the start

Nelson and Pru's younger child and Harry's grandson. Roy belongs to the generation around which the damaged Angstrom family is trying to maintain a stable home.

Appears from the start

Harry's former high-school rival and a neighbor in the Florida retirement community. Ronnie is sociable, competitive, and frequently abrasive; decades of comparison have turned him into both a companion and an unwelcome measure of Harry's aging.

Appears from the start

Ronnie's wife and Harry's former lover. Thelma has lived for years with lupus and with the emotional complications of her secret relationship with Harry. Her declining health makes her part of the mortality surrounding his Florida retirement.

First appears in chapter 3

A young woman employed at Springer Motors. Annabelle's age and appearance revive Harry's old suspicion that Ruth Leonard bore his child after their affair decades earlier. He watches her with a mixture of curiosity, guilt, and a desire for a connection he cannot verify.