Terrorist: A novel

By John Updike

Book Overview

From one of the most gifted American writers of the twentieth century--and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series: "A chilling tale that is perhaps the most essential novel to emerge from September... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307264653
• ISBN13: 9780307264657
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

From Kid to Killer?

Despite the fact that I read a lot of books and John Updike has written a lot of books, I have only read one of his books around 20 years ago. I wasn't overly impressed with my first exposure to him, but I'm a more mature reader now and thought I'd give him another try with Terrorist. This time, I was much happier. Terrorist is the story of Ahmad Mulloy, a high school senior in New Jersey. The product of a broken home - an absent father and an overworked mother - he has sought guidance elsewhere and has become a devout Muslim. Maybe too devout, as the book's title implies: he is a borderline fanatic, which will lead him into the company of some driven individuals. There are other characters, in particular Jack Levy, Ahmad's high school counselor who tries to give Ahmad alternate directions in life while also having a not-so-professional relationship with Ahmad's mother. Then there is Joryleen, who despite her upbeat attitude, is probably the saddest character in the book. I'm sure there are those who would be critical of Updike for humanizing a young man who may very well be a terrorist. I, on the other hand, find it useful to be reminded that terrorists do not spring up from the Earth fully formed; they develop into them just like others develop into more benevolent types. And Ahmad has other qualities, both good and bad: for example, he is studious and respectful, but also intolerant of others who do not meet his high standards. Agreeing with Updike (or me) is not essential; I can read and enjoy books by authors who I disagree with. What is more important is that Terrorist is a good book and thought-provoking. It is a reminder that the world is not black-and-white but is a whole spectrum of grays.

It isn't that simple. It never is.

Charlie is asking him a question. "Would you fight them, then?" Ahmed has missed what "them" refers to but says "Yes" as if answering a roll call. Charlie appears to repeat himself: "Would you fight with your life?" "How do you mean?" [2006 hardcover, p. 188] This is one of those novels where you sort of think you know the ending, and are reading to find out how it happens. Ahmed, we know, is a young man about to graduate from a New Jersey high school and is a convinced muslim of the fundamentalist kind. We know, at some point, that he will step towards terrorism (some call it martyrdom) and read to witness this infuriating transformation. But Ahmed is one in a web of characters: Mr. Jake Levy, the high school guidance counselor determined to 'save' the boy, his wife Beth, Ahmed's Shaikh Rashid, Ahmed's mother.... and a few others touching Ahmed's life here and there. What the novel tries to - and, in my estimation, succeeds in - doing is to give us a glimpse of how a terrorist is made - what are the psychological ingredients. Disillusionment with the 'sinfulness' of modern consumeristic trends, so strong a belief in Islam that one begins to despise all that is not in its accord, a view of onesself as God's instrument and one's own will as subordinate. I think Updike does a good job with all of this owing, in part, to the fact that he writes from the mind of the terrorist on its terms, rather than writing as someone explaining the terrorist mindset before giving an editorial on it. In other words, he tries - as much as a Boston Catholic can - to give Ahmed his own voice and let that voice stand, for better or worse, on its own feet. As a secularist myself, this is what made the novel both infuriating and rewarding. Infuriating because I found myself mentally yelling at Ahmed; rewarding because the novel took my mind to a place it struggles to understand. While I can't claim that Updike got his terrorist character correct (as I know no terrorists to compare it to) his report jibes with much of what we have learned about terrorists and their motives from the press (who actually can be correct sometimes!). If there is one criticism I have - a small one, but we should be obligated to criticize in our reviews at least once - it is that the ending was somewhat unbelievable and abrupt. But we can all make up our own minds on that one. Simply put, I am glad I read this novel. It is that rare form of diversion that actually makes you feel like you are learning something you might not have had you avoided it.

Cut the malarkey - This is a great read

No one is really spared in this, John Updike's latest novel. I expect some day he will win the Noble Prize in Literature if he lives long enough. The prize is not awarded posthumously. Having read all of Updike's published novels, I can say that he has not changed one bit. As a stylist and observer of the meaningful embedded in the small, few can top him and as a master of the English language, I believe, he also has no living peer. Yes, there are lots of riffs and diatribes mingled with the chatter, glabber, jabber, and patter of talking heads. But it holds my interest and it probably will hold yours for these are great insights into the state of contemporary American culture in which the human mind seems to be on eternal holiday and has nothing else to do but absorb entertainment. Those fundamentalist Muslims do look scarier than the fundamentalist Christians because they are not afraid of dying. Well developed and believable characters include Jacob (Jack) Levy, Ahmad's high school counselor, and Terry, Ahmad's Irish mother. Anyone who thinks Ahmad is not believable is missing the point and probably had never gone through a period in their life during which they believed in God with their whole heart and soul. Most of us, of course, have wised up. We know the ancient religions were designed to get the Jews out of Canaan or to help priests control people through fear. Conjure up Hell, the oldest scare tactic in the world. Hell is torture, basically. Can you buy into all this? God as supreme torturer? As pointed out above in the reviews the defect in the novel is plot. Plot should give good reasons for things to happen especially to the major characters. There is too much coincidence here with Mr. Levy showing up just at the right time to board the truck and try to prevent Ahmad from blowing up the Lincoln tunnel and Joryleen, the former high school girl interested in Ahmad, showing up as the prostitute with the heart of gold. Why Terry suddenly decides to ditch Levy we'll never know, but she does. Why Charlie, the undercover CIA agent, waits so long to blow the whistle on the bombing plans we'll never know. Etc. Etc. To the unfavorable reviewers above, I say CUT THE MALARKEY: A book can be good without a believable plot. Read Terrorist for its insights and its character analyses and for your love of language.

The Mind of a Terrorist

Anyone interested in understanding the mind of a terrorist should read this book. We tend to think of terrorists as embodiments of evil, twisted and sadistic creatures, not fully human, deluded by a perverse and cruel interpretation of Islam. Updike turns tables on us and depicts the mind of a terrorist as an idealist searching for purity and intimacy with God in a Godless culture that worships freedom, individualism, materialism, and hedonism. He goes further and sketches ordinary lives that have been ruined by these ultimately inhuman values. Any truly religious or ethical person will sympathize with this criticism of 21st century American culture, though surely not with the protagonist's vision for change. In the end we are left to question our bedrock values of freedom and individualism - freedom for what? Perhaps in the terrorist's critique there is something we can use to improve our own lives and the lives of those we love.

Something new from Updike

Acclaimed on a regular basis for being among the best fiction writers of his time, at age 74 John Updike brings forth a protagonist starkly unlike his adolescent young males in many of his 21 earlier novels. Ahmad, the son of an Egyptian graduate student and an Irish American mother who dabbles in art, experiences many of the awkward yearnings and self doubts of any other 18-year-old American. Yet there is one grave exception: he is a devout Muslim under the tutelage of a radical imam who runs an obscure mosque in a converted dance studio above a shop in New Prospect, New Jersey. Updike successfully brings to life the fundamentalist Muslim view of American glut and excess in such a chilling fashion that we cannot fail to catch a glimpse of why our way of life is an impenetrable mystery that appears evil to the purists of ancient Middle Eastern thought. Ahmad views Americans with jaundiced scorn and contempt. Women are temptresses to be feared and yet adored. Aspirations to acquiring conspicuous belongings are spurned as evil. Only through the glory of serving Allah can he fulfill his life's purpose. As Ahmad approaches graduation, he is seen as an underachiever by his high school guidance counselor, Jack Levy, who belatedly recognizes a spark that should have been kindled much earlier. Levy tries to dissuade Ahmad from going to truck driver school and instead enter a city college, but the imam has other plans for the impressionable and sensitive youth. Ahmad is inexorably and unknowingly pulled into becoming the primary player in a sinister plot to be carried out on the anniversary of 9/11. The novel is not without its traditional sexual nuances. We see deep within the frustrated guidance counselor, Jack Levy, as he struggles with a mature but unhappy marriage by reaching out to Ahmad through his mother. Ahmad is tempted by a wild young female fellow student into giving up his purity, and the agonies of a moral dilemma are treated with pure Updike angst. Updike treats the American government's oblivious disregard to knowledge of the Muslim culture with frustration. We are introduced to passages, written in Arabic and then translated, showing the flowery, metaphorical and obscure writing endemic to the Arabic language. FBI investigators listening to phone chatter, but unschooled in the poetic linguistics used even when suspects are speaking English, miss the significance of references to blinding light and rushing waters as a direct clue to the growing plot. Even Ahmad is sometimes puzzled by the murky descriptions, especially of paradise. He questions his imam about the logic of how dark-eyed virgins can still be virgins if so many heroes reach paradise in their pursuit. This leads to an eye-opening alternative translation of the Koran in that respect, yet it is so skillfully explained away by the cleric that Ahmad is convinced that any misinterpretations are inconsequential and that sitting at the right hand of Allah surpasses all. TERRORIS