{"product_id":"the-poorhouse-fair","title":"The Poorhouse Fair - A Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003e“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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Poorhouse Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A first novel of rare precision and real merit . . . a rich poorhouse indeed.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Newsweek\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Turning on a narrow plot of ground, it\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eachieves the rarity of bounded, native truth, and comes forth as microcosm.”\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Commonweal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51306287923488,"sku":"9780345468239","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0836\/3661\/7504\/files\/9780345468239.jpg?v=1772776233","url":"https:\/\/creativebysanchez.com\/products\/the-poorhouse-fair","provider":"Creative By Sanchez","version":"1.0","type":"link"}