John Updike Explores Arab Immigrant Culture

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio

John Updike has made a career out of chronicling American culture. And he has no trouble conjuring up a young man who is repelled by it.

That teenager, a Muslim named Ahmad, is the central character of Updike's novel, Terrorist, which is set in the changing immigrant neighborhoods of northern New Jersey.

Our conversation with Updike is the latest in a series of talks about issues involved in the immigration debate.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.