Reviews for Roger's Version

The average rating for Roger's Version based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-17 00:00:00 Carl Rondeau - I'd like to talk to John Updike. - Speaking. - My name is Manny Rayner - - Do I know you? - No. I'm calling by intertemporal communicator from the year 2013. I - - You'll excuse me, Mr. Rayner, I don't find this kind of thing particularly - - Please don't hang up yet, Mr. Updike! I believe you're writing a book called Roger's Version. - Yes, I am as a matter of fact. But I don't - - You've nearly finished it. - I was working on the final pages when you called. Now I - - They're in a revolving restaurant. He starts with the consommé, she has the prawn cocktail. - How the hell did you know that? - I tell you, I've read it. It was published 27 years ago. - Jesus Christ, you really are calling from the future? - I am. - I... I need a moment to get used to the idea. I'm sorry. I - - Take your time. - So, uh, so I guess I could ask who the President is and so on, but let's cut to the chase. Do people like the book? In 2013? - It has its fans. - Did you like it? - To be honest, I found it absolutely unputdownable. I've been at a conference this week in the beautiful city of Seville, which I've never seen before. But any time I had a spare moment I took it out and read some more. - Ha! Okay, you've started off the right way. Please continue. - I loved the narrator. Roger is one of your finest creations. So wonderfully cold and manipulative and full of intellectual insincerity. He's fantastic. Verna and Esther are nearly as good. Dale is a terrific nerd. The writing is consistently brilliant, even by your high standards. Once again, you show that you are the true heir of Flaubert. - You do know how to pile on the flattery. - I particularly liked the oral sex scene. Surely the most perfectly realized blow-job in all world literature. No one else could have thought of intercutting it with passages from Tertullian in the original Latin, and if they had they wouldn't have been able to make it work. Chapeau, Monsieur. - I wondered if I'd gone too far. - No, it's a miracle that it holds together, but it does. You make your point in an extraordinarily imaginative and original way. Not gratuitous at all. I'm lost in admiration. - Well, thank you. Other people agree? - I am far from being the only one. - This really is very good to hear. So was there anything you didn't like? - As a matter of fact... - Uh-oh. - Look, don't get me wrong. The idea of using the modern Argument from Design as the heresy was excellent. I happen to know a lot about that, and I can see you've done your homework. You present it with your usual ironic wit. But - - But? - But when Dale's actually going to look for evidence of the existence of God in the physical world, why does he use that ridiculous method? You don't put a foot wrong before or after, and it's such a disappointment to see you screw up at this pivotal moment. I mean, with some novelists I wouldn't nitpick, but I know you love to get the details right. It simply wasn't worthy of you. - Look, what on Earth was I supposed to use? I'm not a cutting-edge cosmologist. I did the best I could. At least I know about computer graphics. - I can see you do, Mr. Updike. Good old Common LISP. It made feel quite nostalgic for the 80s. But here's what you should have done. - I'm all ears. - You know about the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation? - As you've read in the book, I do. - In 1986, people are just starting to find patterns in it. There's a guy called Smoot - - I'm sorry, you're breaking up. Please say that again. - Smoot. George Smoot. - Boot? It's terrible, you were completely clear a minute ago - - SMOOT. S-M-O-O-T. He's developed methods for measuring the tiny variations in the CMBR. His team is trying to launch a satellite experiment to do the measurements. It's called Cosmic Background Explorer, COBE. You need to check it out. Dale could take the data Smoot's team will find and use his image processing expertise to develop a new way to analyze it. He could find something extraordinary. Ambiguous, needless to say, but possibly extraordinary. So COBE - - It's so frustrating, I can't make out a word you're saying. Adobe? Did you say Adobe? - COBE. COBE. - Kobe? In Japan? - COBE. C-O-B- - You're breaking up completely. - C-O- Hello? Hello, Mr. Updike? Are you there? Hello? - Hello? Hello? - Damn!

Review # 2 was written on 2013-11-22 00:00:00 Cameron Pappacena Mom asked me please not to read this book, and I had respected her wishes up to yesterday. But when Manny posted his review, I'm afraid my curiosity finally got the better of me. Okay... well, Mom did go through a pretty difficult couple of years when I was a baby, and she's said a few times that she knew Updike. But I mean, everyone in her generation did. It doesn't mean anything. No, I just can't believe it. Not Mom. I refuse to believe it. You know, maybe she was right. Here's a hot tip to all you gals out there: if your mom, who usually lets you read whatever you want, says not to read something, then don't read it. She may know what she's talking about. Okay?