num_pages: 176
description: “Brilliant . . . Here is the conflict of real ideas; of real personalities; here is a work of intellectual imagination and great charity. The Poorhouse Fair is a work of art.”— The New York Times Book ReviewThe 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.Praise for The Poorhouse Fair“A first novel of rare precision and real merit . . . a rich poorhouse indeed.” —Newsweek “Turning on a narrow plot of ground, it achieves the rarity of bounded, native truth, and comes forth as microcosm.” —Commonweal
language: English
title: The Poorhouse Fair
titlecomplete: The Poorhouse Fair
genres: Classics, United States, Fiction, Novels, American Fiction, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, American
ratings_count: 811
awards: awardedAt: -315590400000
name: Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, awardedAt: -315590400000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction
publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks