Why Updike delved into suicide killers’ psyches

John Updike, one of the country’s most famous and respected writers, is best known for depicting life in American towns and suburbs. In his latest novel, “Terrorist,” Updike writes about Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy, a high-school senior living in a dilapidated factory town in a northern New Jersey city who gets drawn into a terrorist plot, and his 63-year-old, world-weary guidance counselor, Jack Levy. In an interview with MSNBC.com’s Louise Witt, Updike says he created the character of Ahmad as a way to discuss the state America finds itself in after the September 11^th attacks: “I’m trying to get the terrorist out of the bugaboo category and into the category of a fellow human being.”

Updike wanted to write about terrorism because he was disturbed by brutal violence not only in the Middle East but also in this country — like the Columbine massacre. “It wasn’t just the suicide bombers in Palestine and Iraq that intrigued me and got me upset,” he says. “It was also the American youths who with a kind of Nazi ideology have plotted and carried out massacres in their high schools.” He considered writing about a Christian radical but decided that an Islamic fundamentalist character would better show today's stark conflict between the Muslim world and the West. In “Terrorist,” as well as in his other books, Updike says he deals with the “pain” of the human condition: “To be a human being is to be in a state of tension between your appetites and your dreams, and the social realities around you and your obligations to your fellow man.”

In the following interview, Updike discusses his latest novel, “Terrorist,” the conflict between the West and the Islamic world, the role of literature in society, and punk music. To listen to this interview, click below.

Louise Witt: John Updike has delved into the contemporary American psyche in his novels, short stories, essays and poetry for more than a half century. He won the Pulitzer Prize for “Rabbit Is Rich” and “Rabbit At Rest.” In his 22^nd novel, “Terrorist,” Updike tells how a Muslim high-school student in northern New Jersey gets drawn into a terrorist conspiracy. With its suspenseful plot and surprise ending, the book is a first for him — a thriller. Mr. Updike joins us to discuss his book and what it says about post-9/11 America. Welcome, Mr. Updike.

John Updike: Thank you.

Witt: Many of your best known — and most beloved — novels have examined the lives and struggles of rather ordinary American middle-class suburbanites. Why did you want to write about an inner city Muslim teenager whose hatred of America drives him towards terrorism?

Updike: You try to vary your palette as much as you can. I never really made a choice to live in America, so I should be aware of the social strata outside of the ones that I may live in. I’ve done plenty really with small towns. I grew up in a small city, or smallish city, in Pennsylvania. And I feel like I have some feeling for the declining Eastern factory town, and was struck by northern New Jersey as being the epitome of the old factory environment that has, in some cases, turned into slums and in some cases suburban paradises. And being a not-wealthy 18-year-old in an American high school, I felt like I could do Ahmad in a way that I couldn’t do a lot of other people who are in the news. My interest generally is the hidden Americans; the ones who live far away from the headlines.

Witt: When you say hidden, what did you want to draw out of the character Ahmad?

Updike: I wanted to show a deeply convinced religious personality, a person for reasons of his own, which I indicated in his life story, clings very deliberately to Islamic fundamentalism, although his imam cast some shadows of doubt his way now and then. The boy is a naïf believer who in the force of his belief is used by others to achieve certain terrorist, political goals.

Witt: In one of your interviews you said you had considered writing about Christian fundamentalists or radicals.

Updike: Well, the notion of the world being full of devils who are trying to take your faith from you appeared to me in a Christian context at first, but it is really more apt in an Islamic context. Islam doesn’t have as many shades of gray as the Christian or the Judaic faith does. It’s fairly absolutist, as you know, and you’re either in or not. So it’s a good, plausible religious context for a sense that the world is alien, is something else, is something not paradise, is trying to take your faith and your companionship with God from you.

MORE FROM TODAY BOOKS: FICTION

Lupica’s latest book: ‘Million-Dollar Throw’

Lupica’s latest book: ‘Million-Dollar Throw’ Grisham back in ‘Ford County’ for short stories Richard Belzer: ‘I Am Not a Psychic!’ Author Adriana Trigiani forays into teen fiction ‘206 Bones’: A captivating new crime novel ‘Mama Rides Shotgun’ a murder mystery novel New novel follows adventures of single women Silva weaves another thrilling tale in ‘The Defector’ ‘Mortal Friends’: A murder mystery to die for Bizarre serial killer out for blood in new novel   Add Today Books: Fiction headlines to your news reader: