"I have the American dream — I had a dream of becoming a writer! I was little — not rich, or not anything really, but I did have this hope and faith and it kind of has come true for me. So I wouldn't say the American dream is all hokum. Not in my case, at least." —John Updike* “Writer’s and Company” recently aired a n encore presentation of Eleanor Wachtel’s 1996 interview with John Updike . Feeling remiss in never having read even one of Updike’s 60 books — two of them Pulitzer Prize-winners — I went in search of Rabbit, Run . I found Terrorist instead. Inside 18-year-old Ahmad Ashmawy Mully, something terrible is churning. On the surface, he is a high school senior. A solid student. He runs track every spring. And wears a crisp, white, buttoned up shirt every day that does nothing to conceal the contempt he feels for his classmates at Central High School in New Prospect, New Jersey. Through the lens of detachment, Ahmad observes—and is offended at...
Book reviews by the author of "Mimi Power and the I-don't-know-what", "Magnifico" and more.