The ever-surprising John Updike’s twenty-second novel is a brilliant contemporary fiction that will surely be counted as one of his most powe...
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Mar 09, 2009
brian
rated it: 
i’ve been an atheist as long as i can remember and my life, in part, has been a feigned attempt toward belief. i will never believe and know this, so i scramble toward god as a tightrope walker over a net of godlessness. the point, i guess, is to get as close as possible to something i know i’ll never reach; a more sophisticated (or not) form of a kid throwing a fit after having learned that santa claus is just some miserable minimum wage worker with a fake white beard and boozy breath.
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Jun 03, 2007
Jack
rated it: 
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 three wi 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 three wi More...
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Dec 05, 2009
Ruth
rated it: 
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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Jan 02, 2011
Steven
rated it:
I'm teaching this one in the spring though I haven't yet read it. Should be fun, especially considering that I'm pretty sure I already think it's fucking terrible. (Trying to keep an open mind, trying to keep an open mind, trying to keep an open mind...)
But I'm trying my best to keep an open mind about it.
AND LATER...
Okay, I read it and I have to admit that my initial feeling was incorrect. The novel is even more terrible than I first imagined. I cring More...
But I'm trying my best to keep an open mind about it.
AND LATER...
Okay, I read it and I have to admit that my initial feeling was incorrect. The novel is even more terrible than I first imagined. I cring More...
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Nov 06, 2007
Christina Stind
rated it:
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.
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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.
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Sep 22, 2007
Bart
rated it:
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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Jul 17, 2007
Casey
rated it:
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
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Sep 07, 2007
Sangeeta
rated it:
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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Apr 01, 2008
Jaime
rated it:
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 a Catholic ch
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Oct 27, 2011
Roberta
rated it:
Nella mente di un terrorista
Updike con questo romanzo si propone di spiegare il terrorismo raccontaci la storia di Ahmad, giovane musulmano figlio di madre americana irlandese e padre egiziano che li ha abbandonati quando lui aveva tre anni.
A fronte di una società obnubilata dalla televisione e dal cibo e corrotta da comportamenti amorali, Ahmad si pone come obiettivo quello di essere puro nella sua fede, rincorrendo un padre scomparso e disprezzando una madre troppo occident More...
Updike con questo romanzo si propone di spiegare il terrorismo raccontaci la storia di Ahmad, giovane musulmano figlio di madre americana irlandese e padre egiziano che li ha abbandonati quando lui aveva tre anni.
A fronte di una società obnubilata dalla televisione e dal cibo e corrotta da comportamenti amorali, Ahmad si pone come obiettivo quello di essere puro nella sua fede, rincorrendo un padre scomparso e disprezzando una madre troppo occident More...
Jul 13, 2011
Mike
rated it:
In some ways Updike has written a perfect book. Expertly researched and thought-provoking, yet a perfectly paced, page-turner thriller in its own right. Just the right number of characters, all complex, imperfect, and beautifully drawn. Many times I had to remind myself that this book is fiction, and must be taken as such, which I consider a tribute to the research and writing. But, be warned, the book is consistently negative, cynical and depressing in tone. There is a cat in the book, and even
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Jun 06, 2011
Jamampoline
rated it:
Upon kicking off my John Updike-reading career, I steeled myself for harsh criticism of America's burbs and women, and Updike did not disappoint! From his loathsome descriptions of sagging boobs to his prosaic musings on middle-aged fatness in women to the repeated dips into the Quran for tidbits about the unclean women the protagonist (well, the young muslim, but perhaps Updike actually sides with his teacher more) must avoid to stay pure in his faith, there is plenty to wonder what kernel of w
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Jan 02, 2011
Barry
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 12, 2010
Cameron
rated it:
Cameron Buckles
Professor Roney
T6:00
Religious Warfare
Terrorist
By John Updike
310 pp. Alfred A. Knopf
“These devils seek to take away my God.”
John Updike’s 22nd novel, “Terrorist,” takes us into the mind of Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, an 18 year old radical Islamist living in New Jersey who is struggling with his religion in a society full of American “infidels.”
“Terrorist” is a physcological novel that shows how people More...
Professor Roney
T6:00
Religious Warfare
Terrorist
By John Updike
310 pp. Alfred A. Knopf
“These devils seek to take away my God.”
John Updike’s 22nd novel, “Terrorist,” takes us into the mind of Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, an 18 year old radical Islamist living in New Jersey who is struggling with his religion in a society full of American “infidels.”
“Terrorist” is a physcological novel that shows how people More...
Sep 01, 2010
Parksy
rated it:
Sad... didn't notice that I read it around the Sept 11th anniversary...
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From Publishers Weekly
Ripped from the headlines doesn't begin to describe Updike's latest, a by-the-numbers novelization of the last five years' news reports on the dangers of home-grown terror that packs a gut punch. Ahmad Mulloy Ashmawy is 18 and attends Central High School in the New York metro area working class city of New Prospect, N.J. He is the son of an Egyptian exchange student More...
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From Publishers Weekly
Ripped from the headlines doesn't begin to describe Updike's latest, a by-the-numbers novelization of the last five years' news reports on the dangers of home-grown terror that packs a gut punch. Ahmad Mulloy Ashmawy is 18 and attends Central High School in the New York metro area working class city of New Prospect, N.J. He is the son of an Egyptian exchange student More...
Aug 07, 2010
Jeanne
rated it:
I admired some of Updike's prose: "To Ahmad's eyes, the bulbous letters of the graffiti, their bloated boasts of gang affiliation, assert an importance to which the perpetrators have pathetically little other claim." This felt like a real and insightful description of the world of the inner city. However, at other times I was cringing at how many ways Updike told you the people were black. "Darker than caramel but paler than chocolate...", "...mass of dark citizens in f
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Jul 20, 2009
htanzil
rated it: 
Ahmad Ashamy Mulloy, seorang pemuda berusia delapan belas tahun adalah seorang remaja cerdas yang taat pada ajaran agamanya. Ia tinggal di New Prospect (New Jersey) yang materialistis dan hedonis bersama ibunya, Teresa Malloy yang berdarah Irlandia-Amerika. Ayahnya yang berkebangsaan Mesir, meningalkannya sejak Ahmad berusia tiga tahun. Ketika berusia sebelas tahun Ahmad memeluk agama Islam dan semenjak itu pula dua kali dalam seminggu ia mempelajari Kitab Suci Al-Quran dibawah bimbingan Syaikh
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Jun 29, 2009
Adam
rated it:
Terrorist is John Updike's last novel. The novel opens and closes with Ahmad Allowy's inner thought, "These Devils seek to take away my God," and, at the end, "These Devils have taken away my God."
Ahmad is a devout Muslim youth living in New Prospect, NJ, about to graduate from high school. He's living with his white mother, an artist, whose life is not quite as structured as Ahmad's. Ahmad is an outsider at school - his religious devotion is at odds with the loo More...
Ahmad is a devout Muslim youth living in New Prospect, NJ, about to graduate from high school. He's living with his white mother, an artist, whose life is not quite as structured as Ahmad's. Ahmad is an outsider at school - his religious devotion is at odds with the loo More...
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Jan 16, 2012
manyhighways
rated it:
The "Terrorist" that the title of John Updike's latest offering refers to is 18-year-old Ahmad, a young man in New Jersey who despises the Western culture around him and embraces Islam, the religion of his absent father but the book is really a story of two adults trying to influence Ahmad onto what they each consider a proper path. Mr. Levy, Ahmad's Jewish high school guidance counselor, attempts to sway Ahmad towards college while Ahmad's religious mentor is steering him (pun intend
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Feb 16, 2011
Terrorist by John Updike. Published by Random House 2006.
Terrorist Minds in a Terrorist World
Terrorist by John Updike is a story about Ahmad Mulloy (Ashmawy), an 18 year old high school student on the verge of graduating but there is something peculiar about Ahmad. He was raised by his Irish mother since he was three (his father went M.I.A.) and at the age of 12 Ahmad wished to study the Qur’an and was devoted to Allah since. The focus is a social commentary primar More...
Terrorist Minds in a Terrorist World
Terrorist by John Updike is a story about Ahmad Mulloy (Ashmawy), an 18 year old high school student on the verge of graduating but there is something peculiar about Ahmad. He was raised by his Irish mother since he was three (his father went M.I.A.) and at the age of 12 Ahmad wished to study the Qur’an and was devoted to Allah since. The focus is a social commentary primar More...
Feb 05, 2009
Not only does John Updike write tales of suburban angst; he also has a long history of ruminating on faith. Critics compare his latest novel to In the Beauty of the Lilies and The Coup except that Terrorist has an intensely contemporary flare. It's almost scandalous to see one of America's literary lions toying with such an inflammatory topic__and in the guise of a thriller, no less. The litmus test of his success with Terrorist is whether he answers the central question: What drives someone to
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Jul 09, 2010
Snotchocheez
rated it:
When John Updike (one of the premiere American novelists of our generation) decided at the twilight of his career to write a novel called "Terrorist" released post-9/11, I balked at the idea of reading it. I just had this feeling it was going to be a meandering, doddering treatise on the psychological/political/religious manifestations of the mindset of a terrorist. Everyone was affected in some way by 9/11 (either directly or indirectly), and for me the wounds were too raw for me to
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Nov 15, 2010
Patrick
rated it:
A very good book that lacks depth in character, in Ahmad, but rich characters overall. No doubt, Updike leaves Ahmad lacking in depth on purpose because he thinks all absolutist do not have complexity to them.
Essentially, I think the book is about the search for meaning in our daily life filled with consumeristic impulses that seems to be a bottomless pit. Ahmed also wants to do something that is greater than himself a self-sacrifice that is significant in the world instead of suc More...
Essentially, I think the book is about the search for meaning in our daily life filled with consumeristic impulses that seems to be a bottomless pit. Ahmed also wants to do something that is greater than himself a self-sacrifice that is significant in the world instead of suc More...
Jul 27, 2011
I tried very very hard to like this book - especially as it had been recommended by a friend whose reading likes and dislikes is closely aligned to my own.
Picking up the book was a struggle. While this has been on my bedside table, I have started and finished probably about 10 other titles. I think I started in July, and now it's the end of January.
A predictable book with a predictable storyline and predictable ending. I didn't care enough about any of the characters to keep me interested, an More...
Picking up the book was a struggle. While this has been on my bedside table, I have started and finished probably about 10 other titles. I think I started in July, and now it's the end of January.
A predictable book with a predictable storyline and predictable ending. I didn't care enough about any of the characters to keep me interested, an More...
Jun 05, 2011
Perry
rated it:
What do you get when arguably America's pre-eminent author writes about arguably the pre-eminent concern of the times? Can't go wrong, surely?
Well, you can. Very wrong in fact.
I think I should confess before I go on to trash this utterly unconvincing novel that I have yet to understand how Updike has warranted the epithet I gave him above? I read Rabbit Run years ago and was massively underwhelmed by it. I then tried Rabbit Redux a few years ago and gave up on it. I hadn't felt th More...
Well, you can. Very wrong in fact.
I think I should confess before I go on to trash this utterly unconvincing novel that I have yet to understand how Updike has warranted the epithet I gave him above? I read Rabbit Run years ago and was massively underwhelmed by it. I then tried Rabbit Redux a few years ago and gave up on it. I hadn't felt th More...
Sep 10, 2010
Stacey
rated it:
Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of September 11th, and if you really want to scare the daylights out of yourself in memoriam, then John Updike’s Terrorist can help you out with that. It is a creepy, timely, get-under-your-skin-and-make-you-itch kind of novel. But before I get to all that, I must digress a little.
John Updike is also the author of one of my favorite short stories to teach to high school students, titled “A&P.” Notice how I said it’s one of my favorites, not the More...
John Updike is also the author of one of my favorite short stories to teach to high school students, titled “A&P.” Notice how I said it’s one of my favorites, not the More...
Apr 16, 2009
Cameron
rated it:
Deciding whether Updike succeeded in portraying a complicated development of a terrorist, or if he merely expressed a cliché and gave it stereotypical life, the weight of my feeling hedges toward the later. My uncertainty arises due to his well developed tone of sarcasm and irony with which he populates the novel, perhaps overpopulates. Though an intriguing representation of hysteria and fear pervasive after 9/11, I wonder if his intention does not become muddled in the disdain he evinces towa
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Dec 18, 2008
Johnsergeant
rated it:
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...
Jan 27, 2010
Caroline Alicia
rated it: 
I have never been a John Updike fan. That said, I was shocked to see the low star ratings this book received. I'm pretty sure this will be my "The Book" for 2010.
Part of the sermon in the Black Christian Church (amazing job there Updike, I felt like I was really in church. he got everything, call and response, responsive reading, the fact mostly no one willing sits in the very front pew lol) in regard to Moses being barred from the Promised Land: "'No way,' the Lord s More...
Part of the sermon in the Black Christian Church (amazing job there Updike, I felt like I was really in church. he got everything, call and response, responsive reading, the fact mostly no one willing sits in the very front pew lol) in regard to Moses being barred from the Promised Land: "'No way,' the Lord s More...
Feb 21, 2011
Corey
rated it:
I think the kindest thing that I can say into going into why I didn't care for the book is saying that Updike seems to make a lot of assumptions on behalf of the reader: assumptions that the reader is somewhere deep in the mind of the characters, assumptions that the reader has the same viewpoints as him (Updike, that is,) and that they’re willing to consider “seemingly spur-of-the-moment revelation” as an acceptable reason to make life-altering choices.
Terrorist follows the dual sto More...
Terrorist follows the dual sto More...
