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This was my first Updike novel and while I found the prose wonderfully constructed and lyrical, I found the actual story much less. So my four stars are for writing, I would give the book a light three stars.
Our protaganist is a 1/2 Irish 1/2 Iraqi boy who is having real problems coming to grips with adulthood and is also searching for a religious path. He falls in with the wrong people and eventually becomes part of a terrorist plot. The main question in the story is will he or won't he go thr ...more
Our protaganist is a 1/2 Irish 1/2 Iraqi boy who is having real problems coming to grips with adulthood and is also searching for a religious path. He falls in with the wrong people and eventually becomes part of a terrorist plot. The main question in the story is will he or won't he go thr ...more
Updike as always is a social commentator who has a unique spin on US society. Not a thriller (as the title might expect to those unfamiliar with his work), but a look into the mind of a disaffected Muslim American youth, who might…
This is an older book by Updike, but I had never heard of it. I can understand why. It's not bad, it's just "so-so." But given the other amazing things Updike has written, this was underwhelming.
I do think Updike did a good job of portraying Ahmad's thoughts and feelings leading up to his decisions - they weren't trivialized by being made to fit with our sometimes over-simplified ideas about how someone becomes a terrorist. But for me, that wasns't enough to raise the book above 3 stars. ...more
I do think Updike did a good job of portraying Ahmad's thoughts and feelings leading up to his decisions - they weren't trivialized by being made to fit with our sometimes over-simplified ideas about how someone becomes a terrorist. But for me, that wasns't enough to raise the book above 3 stars. ...more
I haven't read anything by Updike since college.
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Sep 24, 2010
Dingus
marked it as to-read
Jul 12, 2012
Sabrina
marked it as to-read
