Toward the End of Time - Softcover

Updike, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0449000419 ISBN 13: 9780449000410

Publisher: Random House Trade, 1998

Synopsis

A journal by an aging banker in which he reflects on subjects ranging from the decline of civilizations to the many-universes theory. The year is 2020 and America is in chaos following a nuclear war with China. Ben Turnbull, the hero of John Updike's 18th novel, is a 66-year-old retired investment counselor living north of Boston in the year 2020. A recent war between the United States and China has thinned the population and brought social chaos. The dollar has been locally replaced by Massachusetts scrip; instead of taxes, one pays protection money to competing racketeers. Nevertheless, Ben's life, traced by his journal entries over the course of a year, retains many of its accustomed comforts, as supervised by his vibrant wife, Gloria. He plays golf; he pays visits to his five children and 10 grandchildren.

Something of a science buff, he finds his personal history caught up in the disjunctions and vagaries of the 'many-worlds' hypothesis derived from the indeterminacy of quantum theory. His identity branches into variants extending back through history and ahead in the evolution of the universe, as both it and his own mortal, nature-enshrouded existence move toward the end of time.

About this title

Review:

"John Updike is a stylist of the highest order, capable of illuminating the sublime in the mundane, thereby elevating all of human experience."--Chicago Tribune

"A book aimed not to resolve but to arouse a reader's wonder . . . Vintage Updike: marital angst worked out against the chilly backdrop of privilege, rendered with a lyricism and insight and eye for detail reminiscent of the work of Jane Austen."--The Miami Herald

"Toward the End of Time has a force that gets under your skin."--Robert Stone, The New York Review of Books

From the Back Cover:

Ben Turnbull, the hero of John Updike's eighteenth novel, is a sixty-six-year-old retired investment counselor living north of Boston in the year 2020. A recent war between the United States and China has thinned the population and brought social chaos. The dollar has been locally replaced by Massachusetts scrip; instead of taxes, one pays protection money to competing racketeers. Nevertheless, Ben's life, traced by his journal entries over the course of a year, retains many of its accustomed comforts, as supervised by his vibrant wife, Gloria. He plays golf; he pays visits to his five children and ten grandchildren. Something of a science buff, he finds his personal history caught up in the disjunctions and vagaries of the "many-worlds" hypothesis derived from the indeterminacy of quantum theory. His identity branches into variants extending back through history and ahead in the evolution of the universe, as both it and his own mortal, nature-enshrouded existence move toward the end of time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0449000419
• ISBN 13: 9780449000410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352