The Centaur 5/5 The Centaur is John Updike’s novel follow up to Rabbit, Run, and if you’ve read that novel, and any of the subsequent ones, you’d recognize just how much of a departure (in some ways) this novel is from those. But John Updike has always had some experimental elements in his fiction, even if it doesn’t permeate all of his fiction. In any given story collection, you’d find a few “out there” stories. Taken purely on plot, this novel is not all that […]

The Poorhouse Fair – 3/5 Stars This is a reread for me separated by about 15 years or so. This is John Updike’s first novel, and feels like it in a lot of ways. It also feels like a kind of drawer novel that came out after finding some experience with short fiction and poetry. The novel is short, broken into three chapters with some small section breaks within it. It takes place over the course of a weekend in a “Poorhouse”, a state-run old […]