Abstract: Terrorism itself is an act of speaking, but it is unspeakable for the victims or the potential ones. John Updike’s Terrorist speaks the unspeakable terrorism, thus incurring intentional neglects, even abuses, in the Western academia. In contrast, the novel enjoys almost unanimously positive appraisals in China, among which, however, exists misreading, regarding the protagonist Ahmad as a terrorist who “goes from evil to good”, and “returns to the rational” finally. Observed from the conventions of writing terrorism novels in the West and different experiences of both Westerners and Chinese people, by writing Terrorist Updike neither “empathizes with a potential suicide bomber” as some Western critics claim, nor describes a stray lamb who retracts from the wrong path. Instead, he intends to criticize the materialism and consumerism in American society as he usually does, and explore the possible reasons for terrorism from the perspectives of both American mainstream society and Muslim community. Terrorist demonstrates the complicated reasons, among which are the impact of the loss of belief in American mainstream society on minority groups, the profound sense of alienation and isolation of the marginal communities, and their craving for identity, thus seeking for the sense of belonging in such religious organization as Islam. The misinterpretations of Terrorist may result from failure in thinking poetically about Updike’s “poetic thinking” in the novel.

Key words: John Updike, Terrorist, terrorism, alienation, cultural criticism