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The Poorhouse Fair cover

The Poorhouse Fair

John Updike

0

awards won

4

score

#3485 of 8,085 books · #1749 in Fiction

Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction (1960).

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.

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Publisher
Random House
ISBN-13
9780679645771
Genre
Fiction
Topics
Aging and mortalityConflict between tradition and progressFaith versus reason

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