Terrorist (novel)
Encyclopedia
Terrorist is the 22nd and penultimate novel written by John Updike
.
teenager named Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, although Ahmad’s high school guidance counselor, Jack Levy, also plays a central role. The novel seeks to explore the worldview and motivations of religious fundamentalists
(specifically within Islam
), while at the same time dissecting the morals and lifeways of residents of the fictional decaying New Jersey
Rust Belt
suburb of "New Prospect" (which Updike has identified with Paterson, New Jersey
, also the setting of his novel, In the Beauty of the Lilies
).
by Ahmad on the condition of American youth as represented by the student body mingling in the corridors of his high school. He gets into a fight with an older boy named Tylenol who thinks Ahmad is flirting with his girlfriend Joryleen. While Ahmad has sexual impulses toward the girl, he represses them, as God instructs. Ahmad finds solace at his mosque
(located in an abandoned dance studio above a bail bonds office) and in the study of the Qur'an
under the guidance of his imam
, Shaikh Rashid. He believes his conviction to be stronger than that of his teacher because of the Shaikh's tendency to interpret the Prophet Muhammad
’s hadiths figuratively and to display traces of a skeptical mind-set.
Supporting Ahmad at home is his rather negligent mother, Teresa Mulloy, a third-generation Irish American
who, while raised as a Catholic
, has abandoned her religious beliefs. Because of her religious infidelity and comparative openness toward sexuality and relationships with men, she has become one of the many objects of Ahmad's hatred — although in her case she is accorded a dutiful love as well. On the other hand Ahmad idolizes his absent father, an Egyptian immigrant who abandoned him and his mother when Ahmad was three years old.
One of Teresa’s suitors in the story is Ahmad’s guidance counselor, Jack Levy, who initially visits her to try and steer Ahmad toward college and away from his chosen career path, truck driver. Levy is an American Jew who has abandoned practicing his religion yet (as many characters in the novel note) still maintains the stereotypical Jewish cynicism and depression. He can be just as critical as Ahmad about American culture, but rather than viewing it in terms of distance from God he sees it as the outcome of historical events and naked greed.
For his part, Ahmad desires to become a truck driver on the advice of his Shaikh because driving is a practical skill of good merit whereas academic studies serve only to advance (American) secular beliefs. He is also afraid that academic studies will strengthen his occasional religious doubt. Trucking is also the path that leads Ahmad toward involvement in a terrorist plot directed against the American "infidel
s" (non-Muslims) — an attempt to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel
under the Hudson River
.
Ahmad agrees to drive the truck into the tunnel and blow himself up. On the day of the planned attack, his accomplices are not at their planned meeting place. Ahmad avoids arrest by federal agents and continues his suicide mission alone. Driving the bomb-laden truck, he encounters Jack Levy on the side of the road before getting on the highway. Jack's sister-in-law Hermione Fogel has alerted him to Ahmad's involvement in a possible terrorist attack.
Jack rides into the Lincoln Tunnel with Ahmad and while sitting in traffic tries to convince him not to go through with the bombing. Jack reveals to Ahmad that the terrorist plot was a government sting and that his friend and co-conspirator Charlie Chehab was actually a CIA
undercover agent who had his cover blown and was beheaded by others involved in the plot. Jack also admits to having an affair with Ahamad's mother for the previous several months.
While approaching the planned location of the bombing, Ahmad reconsiders his interpretation of Islam deciding that God does not want him to kill anyone and aborts his terrorist mission. He and Jack ride through Manhattan together towards the George Washington Bridge to return to New Jersey.
and to follow the "Straight Path." After taking vocational courses in high school (despite being intelligent enough to get into university), Ahmad is hired as a truck driver for Excellency Home Furnishings. He is coerced by his mentor and friend Charlie Chehab into driving a truck and detonating a massive explosive in the name of Allah.
Joryleen Grant : A kindhearted African American classmate of Ahmad's. Ahmad is attracted to her, but resists her advances as he sees her as an unclean infidel. After high school she becomes a prostitute to support her shiftless boyfriend.
Tylenol Jones : Joryleen's African American boyfriend who resents Ahmad's interest in Joryleen and bullies him.
Teresa Mulloy : Ahmad's secular, liberal mother whose laissez-faire parenting style has allowed her son's blinding religious fanaticism to fester inside him and eventually erupt. Teresa has an affair with Jack Levy that lasts roughly three months.
Jack Levy : A guidance counselor at New Prospect High School who strives to get Ahmad enrolled in community college
. Levy represents the typical Updikian character of a middle-class American who futilely attempts to escape his mundane prison of daily life, partly through sexual encounters.
Beth Levy : Jack's overweight wife who when she is not working as a part-time librarian spends her afternoons watching soap operas and eating cookies. She has become a constant reminder of Jack's own mediocrity.
Charlie Chehab : Ahmad's partner at Excellency Home Furnishings who recruits him for a bombing plot. It is later revealed that he has been working undercover for the CIA.
Shaikh Rashid : Ahmad's imam and mentor. He secures him the job at Excellency and manipulates him into assisting in a bombing plot.
Hermione Fogel : Beth's sister who works as an assistant to the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
.
Plot introduction
The story centers on an American-born MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
teenager named Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, although Ahmad’s high school guidance counselor, Jack Levy, also plays a central role. The novel seeks to explore the worldview and motivations of religious fundamentalists
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
(specifically within Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
), while at the same time dissecting the morals and lifeways of residents of the fictional decaying New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
Rust Belt
Rust Belt
The Rust Belt is a term that gained currency in the 1980s as the informal description of an area straddling the Midwestern and Northeastern United States, in which local economies traditionally garnered an increased manufacturing sector to add jobs and corporate profits...
suburb of "New Prospect" (which Updike has identified with Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, also the setting of his novel, In the Beauty of the Lilies
In the Beauty of the Lilies
In the Beauty of the Lilies is a 1996 novel by John Updike. It takes its title from a line of the abolitionist song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."-Summary:...
).
Plot
The novel begins with a brief monologueMonologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
by Ahmad on the condition of American youth as represented by the student body mingling in the corridors of his high school. He gets into a fight with an older boy named Tylenol who thinks Ahmad is flirting with his girlfriend Joryleen. While Ahmad has sexual impulses toward the girl, he represses them, as God instructs. Ahmad finds solace at his mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
(located in an abandoned dance studio above a bail bonds office) and in the study of the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
under the guidance of his imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
, Shaikh Rashid. He believes his conviction to be stronger than that of his teacher because of the Shaikh's tendency to interpret the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
’s hadiths figuratively and to display traces of a skeptical mind-set.
Supporting Ahmad at home is his rather negligent mother, Teresa Mulloy, a third-generation Irish American
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
who, while raised as a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, has abandoned her religious beliefs. Because of her religious infidelity and comparative openness toward sexuality and relationships with men, she has become one of the many objects of Ahmad's hatred — although in her case she is accorded a dutiful love as well. On the other hand Ahmad idolizes his absent father, an Egyptian immigrant who abandoned him and his mother when Ahmad was three years old.
One of Teresa’s suitors in the story is Ahmad’s guidance counselor, Jack Levy, who initially visits her to try and steer Ahmad toward college and away from his chosen career path, truck driver. Levy is an American Jew who has abandoned practicing his religion yet (as many characters in the novel note) still maintains the stereotypical Jewish cynicism and depression. He can be just as critical as Ahmad about American culture, but rather than viewing it in terms of distance from God he sees it as the outcome of historical events and naked greed.
For his part, Ahmad desires to become a truck driver on the advice of his Shaikh because driving is a practical skill of good merit whereas academic studies serve only to advance (American) secular beliefs. He is also afraid that academic studies will strengthen his occasional religious doubt. Trucking is also the path that leads Ahmad toward involvement in a terrorist plot directed against the American "infidel
Infidel
An infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
s" (non-Muslims) — an attempt to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel
Lincoln Tunnel
The Lincoln Tunnel is a long tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey and the borough of Manhattan in New York City.-History:...
under the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
.
Ahmad agrees to drive the truck into the tunnel and blow himself up. On the day of the planned attack, his accomplices are not at their planned meeting place. Ahmad avoids arrest by federal agents and continues his suicide mission alone. Driving the bomb-laden truck, he encounters Jack Levy on the side of the road before getting on the highway. Jack's sister-in-law Hermione Fogel has alerted him to Ahmad's involvement in a possible terrorist attack.
Jack rides into the Lincoln Tunnel with Ahmad and while sitting in traffic tries to convince him not to go through with the bombing. Jack reveals to Ahmad that the terrorist plot was a government sting and that his friend and co-conspirator Charlie Chehab was actually a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
undercover agent who had his cover blown and was beheaded by others involved in the plot. Jack also admits to having an affair with Ahamad's mother for the previous several months.
While approaching the planned location of the bombing, Ahmad reconsiders his interpretation of Islam deciding that God does not want him to kill anyone and aborts his terrorist mission. He and Jack ride through Manhattan together towards the George Washington Bridge to return to New Jersey.
Main characters
Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy : An 18-year-old radical Islamist who seeks jihadJihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
and to follow the "Straight Path." After taking vocational courses in high school (despite being intelligent enough to get into university), Ahmad is hired as a truck driver for Excellency Home Furnishings. He is coerced by his mentor and friend Charlie Chehab into driving a truck and detonating a massive explosive in the name of Allah.
Joryleen Grant : A kindhearted African American classmate of Ahmad's. Ahmad is attracted to her, but resists her advances as he sees her as an unclean infidel. After high school she becomes a prostitute to support her shiftless boyfriend.
Tylenol Jones : Joryleen's African American boyfriend who resents Ahmad's interest in Joryleen and bullies him.
Teresa Mulloy : Ahmad's secular, liberal mother whose laissez-faire parenting style has allowed her son's blinding religious fanaticism to fester inside him and eventually erupt. Teresa has an affair with Jack Levy that lasts roughly three months.
Jack Levy : A guidance counselor at New Prospect High School who strives to get Ahmad enrolled in community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
. Levy represents the typical Updikian character of a middle-class American who futilely attempts to escape his mundane prison of daily life, partly through sexual encounters.
Beth Levy : Jack's overweight wife who when she is not working as a part-time librarian spends her afternoons watching soap operas and eating cookies. She has become a constant reminder of Jack's own mediocrity.
Charlie Chehab : Ahmad's partner at Excellency Home Furnishings who recruits him for a bombing plot. It is later revealed that he has been working undercover for the CIA.
Shaikh Rashid : Ahmad's imam and mentor. He secures him the job at Excellency and manipulates him into assisting in a bombing plot.
Hermione Fogel : Beth's sister who works as an assistant to the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
External links
- Review of Terrorist written by Robert Stone for the New York Times
- Book review from New York Magazine
- Book review from Time Magazine
- Book review from The Guardian
- Book review from the Times Literary Supplement
- Updike radio interview on KPFAKPFAKPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
's Cover to Cover/Bookwaves with Richard Wolinsky (original air date June 9, 2006; rebroadcast February 12, 2009)