Rating: 
Summary: a book for those aware of aging...
Review: A beautifully crafted atmosphere of almost overwhelming oppression and depair and honesty. Not an entertaining book for anyone susceptible to noticing certain discomforting aspects of life. And yet the reality of growing old is better faced objectively, is it not? So that if any hopefulness survives against the certain ravages of aging, then it's a better hopefulness than otherwise. My first review of this book two years ago was shallow and frightened. I've returned to it now after seeing that looking away from the stark reality of losing time is simply futile. Now I enjoy the work immensely. It is not only beautiful, it is comforting in its affirming of what lies ahead. At last, I am able to accept and enjoy the process of having my own hubris deflated. At last, I go about seeking now all the various means of shocking myself into awareness of what's real...what lies ahead for me personally. And this book helps this welcome process along...complementing with artistic tenderness the horrific conclusions of rational analysis. The two view help balance each other...
Rating:
Summary: A quiet sort of novel
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A quiet sort of novel
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Reminds me of a Walker Percy novel
Review: 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: 
Summary: Updike Novice Wants More
Review: I want to say "classic Updike" but this novel is only my second Updike read, so that summary would be somewhat presumptuous. Updike shows a great talent in not only crafting a story, but also crafting a scene. It's easy to get caught up in the senses of Toward The End of Time - colours, smells and textures - while innocently losing sight of the developing plot. Add to this the historical and scientific tangents Updike takes the reader on, suddenly, as if quickly exiting a freeway then merging back on again down the road. These words only add to the experience. For those readers for whom Updike is one of their parent's favourite authors, like mine, then I would recommend this book. Mom and Dad are right.
Rating:
Summary: Utter decay
Review: 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: 
Summary: This book stinks!
Review: The only reason I gave this book two stars is because the author's use of the English language is excellent. The vocabulary is exceptional, the words flow well and the story is easy to read. Unfortunately, he could have definitely put his talents to better use. He also should have spent more time developing a coherent plot. I enjoyed the sections where he was existential and scientific, but much of this book is, quite franky, pornography. Readers of that bent would be better served with a Penthouse magazine. What is it with his obsession with sex? Isn't he getting enough? I was given this book as a gift and I'm going to donate it to the library as soon as possible. If you like him as an author you'll probably enjoy this book, but if you're unfamiliar with him, as I was, you'll probably be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing but memorable
Review: The time is the not-too-distant future after a brief and devastating nuclear exchange between the U.S. and China. The book's main character is an aging and not-very-likable sex-obsessed retiree named Ben Turnbull who is sinking into a depressed and depressing old age. Beautifully written and very readable, as you would expect from one of America's most accomplished writers, but the overall tone is very dark. Ben's world was not a world I enjoyed being in very much. (Why is John Updike always so obsessed with the sexual lives of his characters?)
Rating:
Summary: A Postmodern fastasy worth reading
Review: Told in the first person by various narrators including an Egyptian grave robber, Saint Mark, an Irish Monk at Lindisfarne, a Nazi guard in Poland, who are previous incarnations of the main character, Ben Trunbull a retired stock broker who lives in Boston, the story takes place in 2020 right after the Sino-American war which destroyed the governments of both countries. The Federal Express has taken over the functions of government and moved the capital to Memphis where it has its headquarters. Fedex collects protection money, but Ben likes this new way of doing things better since Fedex payoff is far less than the tax bite used to be when the US bureaucracy ran the show. The dollar has inflated out of existence and the de facto currency is the Welder issued by 13 Boston banks and named in honor of a former governor of Massachusetts. The narrative is postmodern and tentative. For example, at one point Ben is urged by his screaming wife, Gloria, to shoot the deer eating her hedge. He shoots Gloria instead and then takes up with a prostitute named Deirdre. Deirdre leaves Ben because he is "too dull." After that Gloria returns. Ben tells us maybe he didn't kill her after all. Maybe she was just away to a convention for gift shop owners. The narrative then continues where Gloria left off. If you haven't seen Lola Runs, a German film narrated with the technique, you should. Toward the end of time was panned and praised by two different reviews in the NY Time. Since a book can not be both good and bad (or can it), wonder which review is correct. You know where I stand with my five star rating. Read it yourself and let me know where you stand.
Rating:
Summary: A blend of the provocative and lyrical.
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 may not be having an interesting and oddly touching affair with a local prostitute; and who seems to be advising a group of local hoodlums on how best to shake down the neighbors. What Ben is certainly doing is confronting his own mortality: from the opening lines, in which winter comes far too early to the north shore of Massachusetts, to the closing moments, in which, one year later, a sudden burst of warm weather stirs a midwinter flurry of insect life, Ben immerses himself in a sensual awareness of the physical world even as his thoughts seem to travel back through time, lighting on the defining moments of an unusual cast of characters. Whether a reader is jarred by these sudden digressions to ancient Egypt, Nazi Germany, and elsewhere will depend in large part on whether he or she enters into the spirit of the novel, which is ultimately impressionistic, despite its surfeit of detail. In my view Updike works wonders--who else will see the world for us this clearly and render it into such perfect prose? Add to that his subtle but resonant sense of humor (the prevailing unit of currency is dubbed the "welder," after Massachusetts governor Bill Weld; in the absence of a strong central government following a brief nuclear war with China, Federal Express has begun to assert order) and his evermore masterful chronicling of the tensions between men and women, and this novel emerges as one of his very best. Although in many respects Ben Turnbull's life closely resembles Updike's, let's hope that the author is not near the end of his time; clearly, miraculously, his powers continue to bloom.
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