Toward the End of Time
by Updike, John
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Fine/Very Good +
- ISBN 10
- 0241138620
- ISBN 13
- 9780241138625
- Seller
-
Penzance, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
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.From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews
An exceptional display of refined talent, Updike, though often showing off, puts you in the skin, as it were and introduces much of the past in the future. The domestic insights are a bispectral blend of poignance and comedy. My humble opinion. btb
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Details
- Bookseller
- Cornish Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 015423
- Title
- Toward the End of Time
- Author
- Updike, John
- Format/Binding
- Cloth
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good +
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0241138620
- ISBN 13
- 9780241138625
- Publisher
- Hamish Hamilton
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1998
- Keywords
- FICTION
- Bookseller catalogs
- Fiction;
Terms of Sale
Cornish Books
About the Seller
Cornish Books
About Cornish Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...