Book Reviews
[Discussions of God's existence] might at first sound like alien territory for Mr. Updike, and yet ... it provides him with a comfortable armature on which to drape some of his favorite preoccupations. Questions of faith and existential doubt, after all, hover along the margins of many of his novels—surfacing ... most recently in The Witches of Eastwick, which featured the Devil in a starring role—and his heroes, over the years, have all suffered from ''the tension and guilt of being human.'' Torn between ... spiritual yearnings and ... self-fulfillment, they hunger for salvation even as they submit to the demands of the flesh .... [In this novel, Updike's] unpleasant characters might make for rather grim reading, but by presenting them through the scrim of his narrator, Mr. Updike diffuses some of their vitriol. Further, his command of narrative techniques—his orchestration of emotional and physical details, his modulation of voice, his quick, lyric facility with language—is so assured in this novel, so fluent, that even the most hesistant reader is soon drawn irresistibly into Roger's fictional world.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
Sex and its combinations and permutations apart, two of Updike's commanding, long-standing interests in theology and various kinds of science come together to form the matrix of his new novel. The conflicting ideas are as ancient as time: reason versus faith; science versus religion; belief versus any of the forms of unbelief. The contestants representing the fundamental opposition are the narrator, Roger Lambert, 52, a former minister, now a professor of divinity at a New England university, theologically a (Karl) "Barthian all the way" with a civilized tolerance for heretics and the steadfast conviction that God must be taken on faith; and Dale Kohler, 28, a computer scientist fixed in the belief that at the base of all science "God is showing through,'' now working on a definitive demonstration by computer technology of God's existence. That would keep anyone busy, but Dale finds a few hours a week for an affair with Roger's angry, unhappy wife, and Roger's version of belief does not prevent him from having a brief fling with his half-sister's daughter, herself an unmarried mother. For all Updike's finesse and dexterity in the deployment of ideas, there is more arcane computerology here than readers, including his most devoted, can digest by force-feeding, and probably more theology as well. Most readers will also think the characters contrived, mouthpieces for the perspectives they espouse.
Publishers Weekly
Updike's 12th novel continues his portrayal of middle America in all its social, religious, and cultural ramifications. Divinity professor Roger Lambert is visited by Dale Kohler, an earnest young student who wants a grant to prove the existence of God by computer. The visit disrupts Roger's ordinary existence, bringing him into contact with the wild and sexy Verna (his half-sister's daughter), and leading to his wife's affair with Dale. Updike spends a great deal of time in this novel discussing religion, sex, and computers, not always to the advantage of the characters. There are some fine Updike touches—just the right phrase or detail—but it still adds up to a rather lifeless work (perhaps intentionally so). Roger's is an unattractive character with whom we only occasionally become truly involved. Roger's Version is more Marry Me than Rabbit Is Rich. —Thomas Lavoie, formerly with English Dept., Syracuse Univ., N.Y.
Library Journal