Recent Reading: The Poorhouse Fair

John Updike once said that all the work of book tours, stocking books at Brentano's (now defunct), and all the other work of publishing and promoting a book was so that, years later, someone in a public library west of Kansas City finds the book and it speaks to them.

I decided to test this idea out when I was at the Hammonton public library. There I found a first edition of John Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair. The book only sold 8000 copies in the first printing, but it did receive some positive attention which helped Updike sell future books.

The book is a sort of milder version of Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Updike was still figuring out plot and character, but he had some great poetic language throughout the book.