John Updike

The Poorhouse Fair was the first novel by the American author John Updike. A second edition included an introduction by the author and was slightly revised.

To the hero of the title story of this collection, all of England has the glow of an afterlife: “A miraculous lacquer lay upon everything, beading each roadside twig . . . each reed of thatch, each tiny daisy trembling in the grass.” All of these stories, each in its own way, partake of this glow, as life beyond …