{"product_id":"poorhouse-fair","title":"Poorhouse Fair","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTitle: \u003c\/b\u003ePoorhouse Fair\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor: \u003c\/b\u003eJohn Updike\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN: \u003c\/b\u003e0394410505\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/b\u003eKnopf\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished: \u003c\/b\u003e1977\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding: \u003c\/b\u003eHardcover\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage: \u003c\/b\u003eEnglish\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Note: \u003c\/b\u003eExcellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher Description: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first novel from a master of American letters and the author of the acclaimed Rabbit series: \"Brilliant...Here is the conflict of real ideas; of real personalities; here is a work of intellectual imagination and great charity. \u003ci\u003eThe Poorhouse Fair\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of art.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAppended with a discussion of the book's inspiration, its aesthetic sources and models in classics of science fiction, and the way in which its future (projected to be about 1977) compares with the present. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Poorhouse Fair\u003c\/i\u003e was written in 1957 and published in January of 1959. It was hailed at the time of its publication as \"a rare and beautiful achievement\" and \"a work of intellectual imagination and great charity.\" Though its future has degenerated into our present, and Updike's later work is better known, such critics as Henry Bech have hailed this little novel as, still, \"surely his masterpiece.\"\u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Poorhouse Fair | John Updike | Hardcover | 0394410505 | Used: Like New | Fiction 1648802","offer_id":50711722754306,"sku":"1648802","price":32.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0609\/3327\/5906\/files\/710fdWJ5LQL.jpg?v=1791745845","url":"https:\/\/boswellsbooks.com\/products\/poorhouse-fair","provider":"Boswell's Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}