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March 09, 2006
Toward the End of Time
This paperback version of John Updike's book, Toward the End of Time, was sitting on the shelf at work. My original intent was to read it while Nathalie was skiing with the children. Instead I became bogged down online. The World Wide Web is my substitute for television.
Updike writes this one in the first person of the protagonist, a mostly retired financial advisor suspiciously well versed in the names of his local New England flora. Maybe you acquire that vocabularly when you retire. Maybe Updike's vocabularly is so much larger than mine he cannot remember what it was like to document the world through a meager 10,000 words or so.
Yet I found buried in this book one case I'm virtually sure was a typo, protons when he meant photons. That threw me off the scent. I cannot figure it out. How could a financial advisor be so in tune with plant names, yet not know the difference between protons and photons? Is this some deep statement about finance? Is Updike just thumbing his nose at us? If it was a mistake, what about the rest of the story?
I'm nitpicking. In the end I had a hard time getting hooked with this one. It's obvious John Updike can write circles around me, even in areas where his subject matter expertise is thin. I still didn't like his book.
Posted by Mark at March 9, 2006 06:53 AM
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