In Law & Order fashion, legendary writer John Updike’s latest novel is a ripped-from-the-headlines story that has its moments (bouts of wonderfully written prose) but is ultimately unfulfilling. In typical Updike fashion, Terrorist is a slow-moving story about eighteen-year-old Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy of New Prospect, New Jersey, a town once predominantly occupied by white Europeans but now inhabited by the many races whose skin comes in all shades of brown. Ahmad is fed up with his red-headed Irish mother (his father is Egyptian) and under the influence of a radical cleric Shaikh Rashid, who from his storefront mosque preaches retribution for the “devils.”

A taste of Updike’s writing flavor from the first chapter:

“Infidels, they think their safety lies in the accumulation of the things of this world, and in the corrupting diversions of the television set. They are slaves to images, false ones of happiness and affluence. But even true images are sinful imitations of God, who can alone create.”