John Updike The Poorhouse Fair

Started John Updike's The poorhouse Fair , his first novel, which I'd never read and which I have in an ancient, cheap pb. Amazed that this wAs his first novel and not just for the obvious quality but struck by the maturity of the theme and setting : how odd that a young writer would set his first novel in a poorhouse,much like a Sr center or rest home. The three characters we meet in the first chapter are all cranky, eccentric elderly men. So unconventional - virtually every other first novel perhaps thru out history is autobiographical - write what you know. Well Updike did go on to do so but we see over his long career that he knew or cld imagine his way into so many people and situations. It wAs as if this first novel was a challenge to himself and perhaps to the lit establishment: can u imagone trying to pitch a novel about d guys sitting on a potholes porch and overbuilt? We do see some glimpses of the great writer U was to become: subtle and beautiful descriptions of landscapes often overlooked: the fields around Trenton and the banks of th industrial Delaware.

If you're going to (read) The Poorhouse Fair