Terrorist--#4 finished

I hadn't read a John Updike book in a long while and this is one had for a couple years on my shelf so figured now was the time.  Written in 2006 so after 9/11 and while into the wars in the Middle East.  A serious high school student being raised by his single mother and Irish nurse after his father left when he was very young.  His father was Egyptian and a Muslim and this drew him to a mosque when he was 11.  The inman there helped him study and from these studies came to embrace Islam and reject the western world, especially the consumerism of the US.  A high school guidance counselor encourages him to go to college and continue his education but he has already decided to become a truck driver from advice from the inman.  The inman sets up him with a job that a few months into it is going to trigger a terrorist bombing with him as suicide driver.  The guidance counselor after cheating on his wife with the boy's mother, hears about a possible attack and tracks down the boy as he is driving the truck.  In the end he talks him out of the attack.  The ending seemed a little quick and unlikely but overall the writing was very good, good characters and descriptions.  A good read overall.

There are already 8 copies of this book on PBS and a few more as paperbacks.  I will not add to that.  I will put in the give away pile I have and hope someone else can enjoy it.