Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Toward the End of Time by John Updike ISBN: 0-449-00041-9 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 25 August, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (49 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Utter decay
Comment: In 2020, in Massachusetts following the Sino-American War which the USA lost, Ben Turnbull reflects about the onset of old age and his dwindling sex life. He also attempts to cope with a changed America, in which Federal and State bureaucracy and law enforcement have disappeared to be replaced by gangs running protection rackets.
"Toward the End of Time" is a deeply melancholy novel, concentrating on coming to terms with decay and imminent death: Ben's body and mind are both beginning to fail him. But wider than that, his world is breaking apart along with him - the United States he knew no longer exists, or rather only in a pale shadow of its former self, and indeed even the cosmos is in terminal decline.
It seemed to me that Updike chose to set his novel in the future in order to create a defeated America which would heighten or complete the feeling of loss and finality in which Ben experiences. Ben is in that sense at one with both nature and his country - what little sense of hope remains is overshadowed.
Updike's control of prose is as accomplished as ever, making the novel a joy to read, but the overall purpose and setting are not ones to lift the soul, interesting though it is as a piece of reflective fiction. Perhaps it's discomforting to read and explore the realities facing us as we age, the truly ephemeral nature of our existence.
There are some minor quibbles (part of the risk of writing futuristic novels) such as will there really be VCRs in 2020? But on the whole, a worthwhile albeit uncomfortable read.
G Rodgers
Rating: 4
Summary: Reminds me of a Walker Percy novel
Comment: Good fiction immerses and holds you under water, forcing you to drown, along with reality, until you learn to breathe anew in the author's new environment. Mr. Updike can flat-out write like that.
His use of a futuristic setting adds to the reader's perception, where a keen sense of uneasiness is felt for the protagonist, that a personal battle against obsolescence must be fought as one grows older. To invoke a cliche, "You are as young as you feel."
This book reminds me of Walker Percy's "Love In The Ruins - The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World".
Rating: 5
Summary: A quiet sort of novel
Comment: Although I have the Rabbit books, I haven't read them yet, so my only exposure to Updike so far has been this book and the Centaur. After reading both books I find I really like his style, hyperdetailed and flowing at the same time, his gift for description can carry even the most static scenes along. Which helps because this novel is all static scenes. It's the journal of Ben Turnbull who is growing old in the year 2020, in a US which has been devastated by war with China but doesn't seem all that much different, and uses his journal to meditate on all sorts of things, from his squabbles with his wife to (apparently) pretending he's different people during different periods of history. The charactization of Turnbull is excellent and throughout the book the reader really gets a feel for him, even as he keeps trying to slip away behind babbling about physics and being one of the guys who wrote the Gospel, his relationship with his wives and children are nicely sketched out and pull no punches, alternatively showing him in a good and bad light. The plot can best be described as episodic, things mostly happen and Turnbull comments on them . . . though Updike does a nice job of playing with the perceptions of the reader, since the novel is entirely subjective the reader only can go by what Turnbull tells them, leading to questions to how reliable he is. But then, since there's little rising action, the mystery makes little difference other as an academic exercise. Still kind of fun, though. Much like the Centaur, Updike loves to pull those oh so literary tricks of having his wife vanish, some other woman replace her with a sort of muffled explanation and then have his wife reappear with an equally muffled explanation, along with having the narrative mostly stop completely to incorporate vaguely relevant asides. The historical asides are nice as well, though they can surprising because some of the journal entries slide right into them without warning . . . I'm not sure what the purpose of those are, though they are entertaining and different. Perhaps Updike wanted to spice the novel up a bit. In the end though it's both Updike's at times stunningly beautiful descriptions (especially of landscape and weather) and his detailing of Ben Turnbull and his relationships to the various people he knows that form the core of the novel and ultimately decide how much you'll enjoy it. For the most part it's a book you experience more than decipher, one that poses more questions than it answers and when it ends, you'll find yourself a bit older (unless you read really fast, I guess) with perhaps a few more thoughts to ponder. Not a pulse pounding page turner, but gripping in its own way nonetheless.
 |
Title: Seek My Face by John Updike ISBN: 0375414908 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
 |
Title: In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike ISBN: 0449911217 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 21 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Rabbit Angstrom : The Four Novels : Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest (Everyman's Library) by John Updike ISBN: 0679444599 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 17 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
 |
Title: Pigeon Feathers by John Updike ISBN: 0449912256 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Self-Consciousness by John Updike ISBN: 044921821X Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 28 May, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
