Describe Books During Terrorist
| Original Title: | Terrorist |
| ISBN: | 0307264653 (ISBN13: 9780307264657) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | New Jersey(United States) |
John Updike
Hardcover | Pages: 320 pages Rating: 3.17 | 4161 Users | 519 Reviews
Ilustration In Favor Of Books Terrorist
The ever-surprising John Updike’s twenty-second novel is a brilliant contemporary fiction that will surely be counted as one of his most powerful. It tells of eighteen-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 an Irish-American mother and an Egyptian father who disappeared when he was three, Ahmad turned to Islam at the age of eleven. He feels his faith threatened by the materialistic, hedonistic society he sees around him in the slumping factory town of New Prospect, in northern New Jersey. Neither the world-weary, depressed guidance counselor at Central High School, Jack Levy, nor Ahmad’s mischievously seductive black classmate, Joryleen Grant, succeeds in diverting the boy from what his religion calls the Straight Path. When he finds employment in a furniture store owned by a family of recently immigrated Lebanese, the threads of a plot gather around him, with reverberations that rouse the Department of Homeland Security. But to quote the Qur’an: Of those who plot, God is the best.
Point About Books Terrorist
| Title | : | Terrorist |
| Author | : | John Updike |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 320 pages |
| Published | : | June 6th 2006 by Knopf |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literature. War. Terrorism. Contemporary. American. Novels. Thriller |
Rating About Books Terrorist
Ratings: 3.17 From 4161 Users | 519 ReviewsCriticize About Books Terrorist
John Updike has never been one to drop a bollock but dear god, this is an embarrassing effort. This is not only a hammy read, but the characters, with the exception of Ahmad, are detestable caricatures who are everything a klansman would imagine a non-WASP to be. Even Ahmad speaks like a devotee of Kayyam despite being a Jersey native with an Irish mother. The glib references to Islam itself and Islamist rationale, the 'ottoman' money smuggling operation and the woman who simply MUST call andTerrorism is on everyones mind these days and so I wondered how Updike would treat the subject in this book written post 9/11 but before the more recent spate of terrorist attacks that have extended to countries outside the United States.Ahmad is a US citizen, born in that country of an Irish-American mother and an absentee Egyptian father. Despite being raised by his mother, he is drawn to his fathers faith and is schooled by the shadowy imam Sheikh Rashid to follow the Straight Path of
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
This was probably not the place to start with Updike but I found the stereotyping of non-whites in this book pretty insulting. Look, mild disaffection with the world around and being a lonely muslim teenager you does not automatically lead to you wanting to bomb people. Change the main character's religion from Islam to Christianity and the author's treatment of his main character's motivation is shown to be at least utterly ridiculous and at worst, pretty offensive. Ahmad apparently becomes a
You can only call this book bewilderingly sexist, built on a whole range of flawed racial, religious and gender stereotypes. Lazy, unimaginative writing. Its the kind of book you keep expecting to get better, but it doesnt so just give up.
Okay, I didnt exactly finish this one, but Im 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 Quran teacher. Thats it. I was so bored with this that I couldnt 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 its called when its not a Catholic church).
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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