Description
In a county poorhouse for the aged and infirm, ninety-four-year-old John Hook faces the end of his life with stubborn clarity—refusing to be managed, corrected, or silenced. Over the course of a single summer day, the poorhouse’s annual fair becomes the stage for a mounting clash between Hook’s moral and religious convictions and the “progressive” certainty of Stephen Conner, a young overseer determined to do what he believes is best for others. As tensions rise in small, sharply observed moments, the novel probes faith and doubt, authority and autonomy, and what it means to care for the vulnerable without turning them into objects. With Updike’s early gift for lyrical precision and psychological nuance, this debut work reads like a quiet but incisive portrait of American society at a crossroads.
Available Editions
paperback
Gollancz
Published Jan 1, 1972
200 pages
ISBN: 0575014202
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Details
First Published
1958
Language
eng
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.