Book Review: Terrorist by John Updike
August 5th, 2007 by jay
I just finished the book Terrorist which is the first (and last) I’ve read from the author John Updike. I bought it at a train station in Munich Germany while on our Europe vacation back in June. It’s only 310 pages and I just finished it now, so that will tell you something. Overall I’d give it a C- although in fairness I’d give the first half a D- and the second half a B- as it did get a little better towards the end.
Overall though I don’t recommend it as it is far too heavy on description and far too void on story. The author had an annoying urge to want to describe in painstaking detail things that had absolutely nothing to do with the story, like what’s going on in the soap opera a character is watching on TV. Far too many blah blah blah moments to say the least.
Secondly I don’t think he did a good job of describing why the characters felt or acted the way they did which was very disappointing. Like I said to got better towards the end but not enough to save it as far as I’m concerned.