Toward the End of Time

UPDIKE, John

ISBN 10: 0140271430 / ISBN 13: 9780140271430

Published by Knopf, NY, 1997

About this Item

The uncorrected proof copy of this novel that was initially published to mixed reviews: Margaret Atwood, in The New York Times Book Review, loved it; David Foster Wallace, a self-proclaimed Updike fan, wrote a scathing review of it in The New York Observer. Fine in wrappers. Unless otherwise noted, our first editions are first printings. Bookseller Inventory # 912111

Bibliographic Details

Title: Toward the End of Time

Publisher: Knopf, NY

Publication Date: 1997

Binding: Softcover

Book Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

1st trade edition paperback fine In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

From the Back Cover:

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.