YA
Finished Toward the end of time and I’m still not sure the future-facing setup does much heavy lifting.
It’s a strange book in a fairly quiet way. The premise sounds like it ought to bring urgency, but I kept feeling that Updike was more interested in mood and character than in actual tension. Which is fine, but also a bit cheeky if you go in expecting the end of the world to behave like a plot engine.
Did anyone else feel that, or am I being unfair to a novel that clearly wants to drift rather than sprint?
It’s a strange book in a fairly quiet way. The premise sounds like it ought to bring urgency, but I kept feeling that Updike was more interested in mood and character than in actual tension. Which is fine, but also a bit cheeky if you go in expecting the end of the world to behave like a plot engine.
Did anyone else feel that, or am I being unfair to a novel that clearly wants to drift rather than sprint?
That setup sounds like it could be doing two different jobs at once: a speculative frame, and a character study that mostly ignores the frame. I’m not sure that’s a flaw so much as a warning label. Some books use the future to sharpen everything; others just let it sit there, slightly awkwardly, like a coat you can’t quite take off.
I’d be more interested in whether the “drift” feels intentional or merely indulgent.
I’d be more interested in whether the “drift” feels intentional or merely indulgent.