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558 ratings, 3.08 average rating, 129 reviews
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published
June 6th 2006
by Knopf
binding
Hardcover, 320 pages
isbn
0307264653
(isbn13: 9780307264657)
description
The ever-surprising John Updike’s twenty-second novel is a brilliant contemporary fiction that will surely be counted as one of his most pow
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 828)
Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Updike fans and those curious about why radical Islamics hate America
John Updike has earned a mantel full of awards, including a Pulitzer and a National Book Award. He knows people and he knows how tough even the most mundane lives can be. And Updike knows how to write. At his best when writing of “normal” people living flawed, empathetic lives, Updike stretches himself in his latest novel, “Terrorist.”
He writes the story of eighteen-year-old Ahmad Mulloy, the American son of an Egyptian exchange student father who ran off when Ahmad was ...more
He writes the story of eighteen-year-old Ahmad Mulloy, the American son of an Egyptian exchange student father who ran off when Ahmad was ...more
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Oh John, oh John. You ignored the idea of "write what you know." What you know well, and write beautifully about, are WASP middle-aged men of a certain socio-economic group. What you don't know is African-Americans and Muslims. You never shoulda wandered from your own back yard.
This book is so full of breath-taking stereotypes that I cringed. Gack.
This book is so full of breath-taking stereotypes that I cringed. Gack.
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Read in November, 2007
I picked up this John Updike book while on vacation in Praque. The subject of the book was really interesting and this novel should be one of his easier accessible books. Also, I've been wanting to read Updike for a while since my favourite writer Joyce Carol Oates is always compared to him.
I must say, I really enjoyed it. The story kept me enthralled and I find myself thinking about it all the time. Wondering if the reality he describes, is true. Wondering what to do if he is right.
...more
I must say, I really enjoyed it. The story kept me enthralled and I find myself thinking about it all the time. Wondering if the reality he describes, is true. Wondering what to do if he is right.
...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Fans of mundanity
Not long ago, I read an introduction to a large collection of Updike's short stories, which was written by Updike himself. If I remember correctly, it ends with him describing his charge as "giv[ing] the mundane its beautiful due."
Updike's still working overtime with the mundane in Terrorist, but there's almost nothing beautiful or dutiful about this story. Instead, it's composed of mediocre persons trying to be larger than life - or at least only halfheartedly resisting ...more
Updike's still working overtime with the mundane in Terrorist, but there's almost nothing beautiful or dutiful about this story. Instead, it's composed of mediocre persons trying to be larger than life - or at least only halfheartedly resisting ...more
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Read in September, 2007
I am becoming a serial abandoner of books. Can't even blame this promiscuousness on the fact that I belong to a library, as I find myself loving and leaving even books that I've bought on warm, fuzzy afternoons at Crossword.
Anyhow, Mr. Updike, if you're reading this, blame it on my shallowness, and get on with your surfing, because I don't think you'll like the fact that I started your book, liked your protagonist, really 'got' the voice of the book, and then, Boom! So long and thank...more
Anyhow, Mr. Updike, if you're reading this, blame it on my shallowness, and get on with your surfing, because I don't think you'll like the fact that I started your book, liked your protagonist, really 'got' the voice of the book, and then, Boom! So long and thank...more
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Read in April, 2008
Okay, I didn’t exactly finish this one, but I’m finished with it. I gave it 105 pages. Do you want to know what happened in 105 pages? Ahmad met with his guidance counselor, went to church, and went to a lesson with his Qur’an teacher. That’s it. I was so bored with this that I couldn’t even bring myself to care about the blatant anti-Americanism and misogynism. The red light started flashing when I hit the 18 page description of a church mass (or whatever it’s called when it’s not...more
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Read in December, 2008
Narrated by Christopher Lane
Unabridged: LENGTH 9 hrs and 44 mins
Publisher's Summary
The ever-surprising John Updike's 22nd novel is a brilliant contemporary fiction that will surely be counted as one of his most powerful. It tells of 18-year-old Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy and his devotion to Allah and the words of the Holy Qur'an, as expounded to him by a local mosque's imam.
The son of a bohemian Irish-American mother and an Egyptian father who disappeared when he wa...more
Unabridged: LENGTH 9 hrs and 44 mins
Publisher's Summary
The ever-surprising John Updike's 22nd novel is a brilliant contemporary fiction that will surely be counted as one of his most powerful. It tells of 18-year-old Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy and his devotion to Allah and the words of the Holy Qur'an, as expounded to him by a local mosque's imam.
The son of a bohemian Irish-American mother and an Egyptian father who disappeared when he wa...more
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Read in February, 2007
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in September, 2008
This is the story of a homegrown terrorist "in the making", named Ahmad. He's the teenage son of an Irish mother and an absent Arabic father, whose void plays a part in Ahmad seeking guidance from the local imam (a teacher/guidance counselor in the Islamic faith). The imam seeks to teach Ahmad "the straight path", which has something to do with absolute devotion and faith in Allah. Along the way, he's also taught that Americans are a godless people whose lack of faith has hor...more
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Another one of those books that leave me wondering how many starts I should give them. Five stars for some passages of insanely good writing that only Updike is capable of? Four for his sharp social/political/historical/cultural commentaries and his impressive researching of the Koran? How about two for an awful plot and a set of characters who talk bigger than themselves? Or even one for an unbelievably abysmal ending? One thing is clear, however: Updike is not the great Updike of the Rabbit se...more
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This book was not Updike's best.
He examines post 911 America through the eyes of a lapsed Jew who is a high school counselor, a radical young Muslim of mixed race recruited to perform a terrorist act, and a cast of minor characters - and reveals a society with little moral center. The radicalism espoused by Ahmed, whose mother is a white nurse's aide and failed painter and whose father is an Egyptian long gone, is more comforting to the reader than the unhappy mental meanderings of ...more
He examines post 911 America through the eyes of a lapsed Jew who is a high school counselor, a radical young Muslim of mixed race recruited to perform a terrorist act, and a cast of minor characters - and reveals a society with little moral center. The radicalism espoused by Ahmed, whose mother is a white nurse's aide and failed painter and whose father is an Egyptian long gone, is more comforting to the reader than the unhappy mental meanderings of ...more
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Incredibly, this is the first Updike novel I've read (I kmow, I know...) and, on the heels of De Lillo's disappointing Falling Man, with which it has several points in common, I found it a far better book. It takes on one element of post 9/11 America - what makes a terrorist? - and, unlike De Lillo, produces a portrait that hits home because of the sympathy it evokes. Updike's terrorist is a refined, fastidious boy, utterly three-dimensional, in many ways a son that anyone would feel proud of. W...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
those with nothing else to read.
The main trouble with Terrorist is in the voicing of the characters. The anti-hero, Ahmad, is a half-Arab American teenager who is groomed to become a terrorist by the imam at a local mosque. In many ways, besides his faith, he is a typical teen, self-concerned, withdrawn, and amazed at the hypocricy of adults. Yet Updike, for whatever reason, inserts his stodgy authorial voice into Ahmad's body, making him sound like a geriatric middle-eastern diplomat. Despite having grown up in America, Ahmad...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like explorations of what it means to be human
This is my first exposure to Updike, and I must say I was only marginally impressed. He, of course, has excellent language control, and some of the passages in the book are down right beautiful. The book is about a young Egyptian American, Ahmad, who is a fastidious student of Islam. His religion keeps him focused during his senior year in high school, while alienating him from his fellow students at the same time. Ahmad is a smart kid, and a hard worker, but he chooses to drive a truck instead ...more
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Read in November, 2008
This is a complex, well-conceived novel that might be a little too compact. The last fifty pages are full of action, and Updike is at his best when he integrates ideas (usually in the form of dialogue) with action. This one feels a little rushed in its conclusion, but it's one of his better novels (though not among the best, which includes the Rabbit tetralogy, Couples, The Coup, The Centaur, and Roger's Version, not necessarily in that order).
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Read in April, 2008
A good story, suspenseful, but very uneven in terms of characterization. Some characters (the young protagonist, Ahmad, and the high-school counselor who insinuates himself into Ahmad's home life in an effort to keep him in school) are complex, sympathetic and well-developed, while others are less so (Ahmad's mother and best friend) and others are downright cartoonish (the high-school counselor's wife, a school bully implausibly named Tylenol).
Updike also varies wildly in how well he...more
Updike also varies wildly in how well he...more
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Read in January, 2007
I liked this, but did not think it was one of Updike's best. My biggest problem with the book had to do with the dialogue. I didn't think that it was all that believable and sounded a little forced to my ear. I had a similar problem with Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons." I just don't think that men their age can realistically capture the voice of college / high school students today...especially when trying to write slang - it comes off sounding pretty stupid. With that said, ...more
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Read in November, 2008
I don't think I can really comment on whether it is an accurate portrait of a terrorist-in-waiting, but I really enjoyed this portrait of an alienated ("socially excluded," to use the British term) teen (aren't they all?). I read 1 or 2 of the Rabbit books many years ago and did not think they were very compelling unless the reader is Rabbit-like. Ahmad is a much more accessible character. Liked the New Jersey-ness of it. Can't decide if choice of name of Tylenol for minor African-...more
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Read in December, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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This was the first Updike book I read. I can see that he's a skilled writer, but overall I was unimpressed with this book. I found the dialogue excessively lengthy and didactic, and the pacing pretty slow. I also thought that the characterization was inconsistent and odd; for example, the main character, who was American-born and educated, usually spoke extremely formally like an ESL student -- except when he didn't, occasionally using more casual slang for no apparent reason. The main chara...more
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