Toward the End of Time

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,... Read Full Review

The main character is a man who spent most of his adult chasing women, pursuing his career and playing golf is now faced with his own mortality. He speculates over the missed opportunities that life presented him and to some extent wonders what he should have done differently; but he continues to chase young girls and play golf while he does this speculating. Yet this lecherous old man is extremely likeable and very... Read Full Review

There is great irony in the title, because the world it portrays is not dying, but returning to life. The imagined Sino-American War has destroyed neither life nor civilization -- it has disrupted the old patterns of both, and new ones are emerging in their place, like vegetation through the cracks in a cement sidewalk.The narrative voice is a wonderfully cynical but perceptive observer of this reawakening. I heartily... Read Full Review

Toward The End of Time made the New York Times's "Notable Books" list for '97, but never really got the attention it deserves. Although set in the near future (the year 2020 should be a tip-off that Updike is having some fun with this device) the book is focused very much on the here-and-now as experienced by Ben Turnbull, an aging investment adviser whose wife may be trying to kill him, or may herself be dead; who may or... Read Full Review

i am stunned that the so-called critics of modern literature read this book as it was some sort of science fiction fantasy about the year 2020; calling for more detail and not understanding the relationship between its parts. When are we to learn that consciousness is best understood by weaving together our dreams and our "waking" moments. The descriptions of life in the garden, live in the cave, life on the highway and... Read Full Review