Poorhouse Fair
by John Updike
List Price:
Our Price: $18.22
You Save: $11.78 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: John UpdikeEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1977-02-12
ISBN: 0394410505
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of Poorhouse Fair
Book Review: The Theology of life within the walls of The Poorhouse Fair.
Summary: 4 Stars
John Updike's first novel establishes his voice and typical style: minimal plot and reflective intellectuality (usually derived from personal experience) delivered via poetic prose. Interestingly, the Poorhouse Fair appears an atypical futuristic book (though Updike is again returning to the future in his forthcoming novel, written almost forty years later) set sometime in 1973-74 (in the first four editions); however it becomes evident the intention when the fifth printing changed the time frame by ten years: 1984. Thus, we fall directly into the lap of Huxley and Orwell in predicting a utopian hell for America. The book reveals an abandoned America of declining morality: freed from the Cold War, internal tensions and with progressing prosperity, America nevertheless is washing out, dissolving with old age and lassitude. He states, "The nation became one of pleasure-seekers; the people continued to live as cells of a body do in the coffin, for the conception 'America' had died in their skulls."
Summary of Poorhouse Fair
The hero of John Updike?s first novel, published when the author was twenty-six, is ninety-four-year-old John Hook, a dying man who yet refuses to be dominated. His world is a poorhouse?a county home for the aged and infirm?overseen by Stephen Conner, a righteous young man who considers it his duty to know what is best for others. The action of the novel unfolds over a single summer?s day, the day of the poorhouse?s annual fair, a day of escalating tensions between Conner and the rebellious Hook. Its climax is a contest between progress and tradition, benevolence and pride, reason and faith.Literary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literary Books
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Angelsby Marian Keyes
William Morrow; Published: 2002-05-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.18
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.81
Price in other shops:
The Devil and Miss Prym: A Novel of Temptationby Paulo Coelho
Harper; Published: 2006-07-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.50
Price in other shops:
Boonville: A Novelby Robert Mailer Anderson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Carameloby Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-10-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Headhunterby Timothy Findley
PERENNIAL PUBLICATIONS; Paperback; Book
The Crimson Petal And The Whiteby Michel Faber
Harcourt, Inc./Harvest; Published: 2003; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Exiles: A Novelby Ron Hansen
Spring Arbor/Ingram; Picador; Published: 2009-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.79
Price in other shops:
Consider the Lobster and Other Essaysby David Foster Wallace
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-07-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Holy the Firmby Annie Dillard
Harper Perennial; Published: 1988-07-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.30
Price in other shops:
Dakota: A Spiritual Geographyby Kathleen Norris
Mariner Books; Published: 2001-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops:
Gilead: A Novelby Marilynne Robinson
Picador; Published: 2006-01-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
In Our Timeby Ernest Hemingway
Scribner; Published: 1996-01-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.94
Price in other shops:
The Centaurby John Updike
Alfred A. Knopf; Published: 1963-02-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $54.84
Pulphead: Essaysby John Jeremiah Sullivan
FSG Originals; Published: 2011-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.79
Price in other shops:
The Moviegoerby Walker Percy
Vintage; Published: 1998-04-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Centaurby John Updike
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 1996-08-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops: