Terrorist by John Updike

The last book I had read by John Updike was "Couples" in 1970....

This book  is a sort of political thriller, where a young American, half Irish through his mother, and half Egytian by his father who disappeared from his life when he was three, leaving a hole that Islam is going to fill.
And it's the story of a manipulation of a youngster by older ones to lead him to martyrdom in creating a terrorist act in new Jersey, like his "brothers" are lead to it in other countries.

The character of the teenager seems strangely apart from life, even before he becomes the perfect target for a future martyr.. Nothing really attracts him and when it does, he rejects it..
All these qualities having been noticed by the local integrists to make him commit the sacrifice of his life, without really knowing what life is...

But the other characters in the book are more attractive, like the old advisor, jewish but not religious, who falls in love with the youngster's mother, an Irish painter, nurse, who has spent her life away from all normality, marrying an Egyptian at a time when it wasn't exactly what was expected from her, and then going from one lover to another, until Jack Levy came into her life, went out of it, and finally saved her son!

Hi wife, Beth and her sister Hermione are very interesting too.

Finally, it's those side characters that give life to the book as well as  the extreme precision of the descriptions of places and things.