Roger's Version

Rating:
Summary: Faith in science?
Review: I thought that this was a very enjoyable novel - indeed, shades of "Rabbit Redux". The plot centres on Roger Lambert, a Professor of Divinity, his wife Esther, his half-niece Verna, and Dale, who is convinced that he can prove the existence of God by scientific analysis.

The book is really a paean to uncertainty. Is religious faith or faith in science a sure way of explaining the meaning of life? Are human relationships as certain as we should think or wish them to be?

Updike devotes much space to a fascinating analysis of the struggle between the scientific and traditional Christian explanations of the Creation. The question arises of whether the theory of evolution has in fact become a new religion, demanding faith rather than reason, and complete with its own zealots and heretics.

Running parallel to that is Roger Lambert's own views of the lives of the other characters in the novel. And here the reader is not sure how much is real and how much is Roger's fevered imagination. Is Esther really having an affair with Dale or is it just "Roger's version" of what might have been happening?

I felt that Updike was at his challenging best in this novel - exploring many interesting themes in an entertaining way, for example the uncomfortable interaction between Roger's middle-class world and the underworld occupied by Verna is particularly disturbing, and exposes latent tensions in society.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Held my attention from the very first line
Review: The best Updike book I have read so far. The distance with which Updike tells the tale and the very simplicity of the situation allow for an incredible amount of relating to the situation.

Pick up this title whenever you get the chance, and read the first page....then you will know what I mean.

Rating:
Summary: Theologico-scientific debate, anyone?
Review: There is something not quite human about how much John Updike actually KNOWS. Roger's Version is a substantial novel about the relationship between a professor of divinity and an expert in computer science. Updike does not shy from - rather he wholeheartedly immerses himself in - the details of these spheres of interest, seesawing between the complexities of heretical sects in the early Christian Church and the voluminous realms of astrophysics. One minute we are reading long quotations in medieval Latin; the next we get - for example - 'Since z = 2.5 constitutes a plane, then by setting z equal to the transformed coordinates of the model carbon molecule atoms Dale creates a series of more complex intersections...'. The story is about the extent to which the two esoteric schools can be made to meet; basically, can one 'prove' the existence of God through science? In pursuing the argument Updike, naturally, does more than just thrash through the intellectual issues; he structures the whole affair with his typical artistry, so that the idea of, say, the binary opposition informs a raft of clever leitmotifs - most gorgeously: 'At her attack, the delicious flutter of ambiguity beat its wings, necessarily two, through all my suddenly feminized being.' This is a magisterial, monumental book. It's a fine, heavy book. In the scale of both its intellectual and artistic pretensions I honestly think one can call it Miltonic.

Rating:
Summary: Theologico-scientific debate, anyone?
Review: There is something not quite human about how much John Updike actually KNOWS. Roger's Version is a substantial novel about the relationship between a professor of divinity and an expert in computer science. Updike does not shy from - rather he wholeheartedly immerses himself in - the details of these spheres of interest, seesawing between the complexities of heretical sects in the early Christian Church and the voluminous realms of astrophysics. One minute we are reading long quotations in medieval Latin; the next we get - for example - 'Since z = 2.5 constitutes a plane, then by setting z equal to the transformed coordinates of the model carbon molecule atoms Dale creates a series of more complex intersections...'. The story is about the extent to which the two esoteric schools can be made to meet; basically, can one 'prove' the existence of God through science? In pursuing the argument Updike, naturally, does more than just thrash through the intellectual issues; he structures the whole affair with his typical artistry, so that the idea of, say, the binary opposition informs a raft of clever leitmotifs - most gorgeously: 'At her attack, the delicious flutter of ambiguity beat its wings, necessarily two, through all my suddenly feminized being.' This is a magisterial, monumental book. It's a fine, heavy book. In the scale of both its intellectual and artistic pretensions I honestly think one can call it Miltonic.

Rating:
Summary: A Modern Classic
Review: This is one of John Updike's very best books-and that's saying something.The first chapter alone has more substance than just about anything else you'll read this year. All of the familiar Updike themes are here: religon,modern relationships,class,sex,family,etc. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.

Rating:
Summary: It affected me....just in the WRONG way!
Review: Updike at his effortless best in this profound yet brilliantly flowing novel that explores the alkward relationship between religion and science...

The story is narrated by Roger, a morally dubious yet entertaining and witty doctor of divinity at an Eastern university. Roger is approached by a gangling, spotty computer scientist (who is also a born-again Christian) seeking a grant to "scientifically" prove the existance of god!

Things get complicated when the student begins having an affair with Esther, Roger's wife, while he himself begins an affair with a distant relative who lives across town in a housing project. Within this simple yet touching quadrangle of relationships come excepts from Roger's lectures on heretics, and comments on modern cosmology...

Add to this Updike's effortlessly telling descriptions, from the feel of cold streets to the elaborate rituals of academic board meetings and you have a very fine novel indeed.

One slight critisism - the computer technology so lovingly described is virtually obsolete already. This makes Roger's Version an unusally dated Updike work.

Rating:
Summary: Sublime
Review: Updike at his effortless best in this profound yet brilliantly flowing novel that explores the alkward relationship between religion and science...

The story is narrated by Roger, a morally dubious yet entertaining and witty doctor of divinity at an Eastern university. Roger is approached by a gangling, spotty computer scientist (who is also a born-again Christian) seeking a grant to "scientifically" prove the existance of god!

Things get complicated when the student begins having an affair with Esther, Roger's wife, while he himself begins an affair with a distant relative who lives across town in a housing project. Within this simple yet touching quadrangle of relationships come excepts from Roger's lectures on heretics, and comments on modern cosmology...

Add to this Updike's effortlessly telling descriptions, from the feel of cold streets to the elaborate rituals of academic board meetings and you have a very fine novel indeed.

One slight critisism - the computer technology so lovingly described is virtually obsolete already. This makes Roger's Version an unusally dated Updike work.

Rating:
Summary: It affected me....just in the WRONG way!
Review: Very good writing and style, intriguing story. However, I guess I just didn't expect to feel somewhat sickened and a bit depressed by the story. If you want to be AFFECTED, than this book is for you. It'll grab hold of you and won't let go. It just wasn't what I was expecting. If I want to feel disgust at the actions of human beings, I'll go ahead and buy a book about Ted Bundy.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectual rubbish
Review: You know how it is. Brilliant author, ability to write exquisitely, with wit and a deep thought at the same time. Some time later author begin to think about important questions of existence-God and science and stuff like this. And what we have gotten. Rubbish, literally garbage of literature. Writer seems want to create a conflict of science and God, but the thing is the guy who is supposedly represent God's side isn't believer by himself(by his true nature). Explicit description of sexual encounters of two heroes doesn't add to the greatness of book either. It's just sickening. Sure sometimes you may catch glimpses of greatness in this book when author describes hero's feeling, nature and so on, you feel that writer has a great potential. But wrong person writes this book for wrong reason. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Science? Believe in what you want but don't make a mockery of Creator. At the end He will make mockery of You.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectual rubbish
Review: You know how it is. Brilliant author, ability to write exquisitely, with wit and a deep thought at the same time. Some time later author begin to think about important questions of existence-God and science and stuff like this. And what we have gotten. Rubbish, literally garbage of literature. Writer seems want to create a conflict of science and God, but the thing is the guy who is supposedly represent God's side isn't believer by himself(by his true nature). Explicit description of sexual encounters of two heroes doesn't add to the greatness of book either. It's just sickening. Sure sometimes you may catch glimpses of greatness in this book when author describes hero's feeling, nature and so on, you feel that writer has a great potential. But wrong person writes this book for wrong reason. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Science? Believe in what you want but don't make a mockery of Creator. At the end He will make mockery of You.