John Updike The Poorhouse fair

Part 2 becomes even more explicitly religious as the residents of the poorhouse recall the old director w the distinctively Jewish name of Mendelsohn running their meetings from on high his dinner table at the head of the rectory on a stage and he seems to me like an OT god But the new director, Conner, wants to be among the people - a NT god? - but he is not accepted the residents don't love him - are they meant to be sinners who cannot accept grace And salvation. Perhaps I think this and seek allegorical significance because I know the novels thAt U would go on to write. But it's inescapable the Poorhouse involves more than the very quiet almost placid events of the story itself - these people must represent something - as in so many great novels and stories there's an ineffability about Poorhouse it seems to point beyond itself to a greater and more profound meaning that is elusive and mysterious and just beyond our grasp.

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