Galley Talk

Bill Cusumano, buyer, Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, Mich.

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2006

If John Updike is not the finest living author in America, then he certainly ranks in the top three. Though some would confine him to a niche, he has consistently left suburbia in works such as The Coup, Brazil and Gertrude & Claudius, and he does so again to great effect in Terrorist (Knopf, June). His depiction of modern society has been probing and unerringly accurate for 50 years, and Terrorist finds him in top form, conveying a picture of our current disjointed and confused world. His story of 18-year-old Ahmed, an Egyptian-American youth being recruited as a suicide bomber, and Jack Levy, Ahmed's aged high school guidance counselor, gives Updike a perfect setting to examine questions of faith and belief, a recurring theme in all his fiction. No author is a better craftsman than Updike, and in Terrorist he exhibits his command of prose. The language is luminous and flows effortlessly. This book is the essence of great fiction and demonstrates the mastery of its author.