Updike's Toward the End of Time received mixed reviews. Some critics really liked it; others did not. For instance, a critic for Publishers Weekly commends “this magnificent new novel” for “its futuristic setting.” The same critic concludes that the “book . . . has all the hallmarks of a classic.”

From another point of view, Jeff Giles, writing for Newsweek, states that Updike's Toward the End of Time “is one of the author's rare misfires, a dull, disjointed roadside accident of a novel.” In a similar tone, Marvin J. LaHood, writing for World Literature Today, states that Toward the End of Time is one of Updike's “worst.” LaHood continued: “There is nothing noble about Turnbull [the protagonist]. His mind is filled with tawdry images and erotic desires; his attitude toward women is demeaning and contemptible.” LaHood concludes that Updike “seems one of the most uneven of American writers.” Updike...