Ragtag Giggagon

This is a review for people who read VERY slowly. Updike's Terrorist (from 2006) was a published book what I had on the go for about eight months. I could've read it in a few sittings, but the thing is - and here's the thing, folks - the novel is populated with a handful of interesting, wonderfully-drawn characters so it's very easy to abandon for weeks at a stretch and return to without needing reminders. Brilliantly-researched, featuring a gynandromorphic imam with a chip on his shoulder, teaching the eponymous (anti)hero - a young man fresh out of a New Joyzee high school - how to read the Quran. Rewarding stuff for any reader curious about Islam. The conversations between student and teacher at the mosque are so eruditely honed that I can say with complete certainty that Updike has forgotten all the stuff he must've learned in the course of his research. (Mainly because he died in 2009. RIP.) The boy's mother - a single woman whose male-gaze descriptions viv...