The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 24 September 1999
by John Updike
It is 2020, after a limited nuclear conflict, half the world's population has survived, various levels of chaos reign in what is left of the country, and in the midst of all this, one man deals with his own aging and decay. Ben, the protagonist of Updike's novel, is a gently curmudgeonly middle class man of 67. Despite the collapse of the world around him, he would just like to spend the last years of his life quietly, and with as little conflict as possible. All around him, the world seems to taunt him with its persistent and fecund ability to survive. The book is full of descriptions of the plant life around Ben's home as the year passes. And Ben, himself, dwells, realistically, but perhaps unhealthily on his own waning sexual abilities. Like many men, his aging prompts depressing thoughts of loss of fertility, loss of prowess, and loss of stature. He goes to pathetic and explicit lengths to combat the problem. Ben, however, in this journal of this one year, experiences lapses in memory and judgement. His wife mysteriously disappears, leaving room for him to have an affair with a free-spirited teenager (echoes of Rabbit, Redux). When his wife just as mysteriously re-appears, Ben, as well as the reader, has reason to doubt the timeline of the story. Reminding us that each decision in our lives represents a forking of potential histories, only one of which we get to experience, Ben plays with other worlds and other times. He imagines himself accompanying St. Paul on his ministry, or at the end of time itself, seeing the universe beginning to contract upon itself. The book, ultimately, is disturbing, with Ben's hyper-awareness of the weight of time. Yet there are joyous moments of recognition of the durability of life. The weight of decay permeates the tale, yet it is full of hopeful notes. A well-written challenge.
Also by Updike:
[Just Looking]
[Still Looking]
[The Centaur]
[S.]
[The Poorhouse Fair]
[Of the Farm]
[Rabbit, Run]
[Rabbit Redux]
[Rabbit is Rich]
[Rabbit at Rest]
[Licks of Love]
[The Witches of Eastwick]
See also: [Updike, by Adam Begley]