{"product_id":"9781598535815","title":"John Updike: Novels 1959-1965 (Loa #311): The Poorhouse Fair \/ Rabbit, Run \/ The Centaur \/ Of the Farm","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLibrary of America launches its definitive multi-volume edition of John Updike's novels with the four early works that signaled the arrival of the most gifted young novelist of the 1960s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Updike had already made a name as a contributor of stories and poems to \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e when, in January 1959, at the age of twenty-six, he published his first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Poorhouse Fair\u003c\/i\u003e, launching one of the most extraordinary literary careers in American letters. Now, Library of America inaugurates on a multi-volume edition of Updike's novels with this volume gathering his first four novels, including the landmark \u003ci\u003eRabbit, Run\u003c\/i\u003e, chosen in 2010 by TIME Magazine one of the best 100 novels published in English since 1923. Set in the near future of 1978, \u003ci\u003eThe Poorhouse Fair\u003c\/i\u003e stages a conflict between John Hook, a rebellious ninety-four-year-old former schoolteacher now a resident of a rural poorhouse, and young Mr. Conner, the utilitarian humanist who runs the facility, as an allegory of resistance in a world of systems and efficiencies. Updike's legendary rejoinder to Jack Kerouac's \u003ci\u003eOn the Road\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRabbit, Run\u003c\/i\u003e (1960) introduces us to the author's most enduring protagonist, Harry \"Rabbit\" Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who, on an impulse, deserts his wife and son, with tragic consequences. \u003ci\u003eThe Centaur\u003c\/i\u003e, a comic-tragic father-son novel that mixes memory and myth, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1964. The novella \u003ci\u003eOf the Farm\u003c\/i\u003e (1965) is one of Updike's loveliest performances, a kind of chamber music for four voices set during a single memorable weekend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Library of America","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47050587963632,"sku":"9781598535815","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781598535815_p0.jpg?v=1763812256","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781598535815","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}