{"product_id":"the-poorhouse-fair-rabbit-run","title":"The Poorhouse Fair · Rabbit, Run","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis highly praised single-volume omnibus compiles John Updike's first two brilliant novels, offering a sharp, unvarnished look at the social anxieties and spiritual stagnation of post-war small-town America. The collection opens with The Poorhouse Fair, a futuristic, allegorical story set in a New Jersey home for the aged, tracking the silent friction and ideological clashes that erupt over a single day between the eccentric, fiercely independent elderly residents and their highly clinical, progressive young prefect who values bureaucratic efficiency over human tradition. This is paired with Rabbit, Run, a foundational landmark of contemporary realism that tracks the frantic, chaotic flight of Harry \"Rabbit\" Angstrom, a twenty-six-year-old former high school basketball star trapped in a suffocating, dull marriage and a dead-end sales job in Pennsylvania. Abruptly abandoning his pregnant, alcoholic wife, the protagonist sets out on a desperate, aimless road trip to reclaim a sense of exceptionalism, triggering a series of intense domestic collapses, tragic accidents, and messy romantic entanglements. Together, these beautifully written texts function as an essential historical archive of mid-century disillusionment, evaluating how individual desire, spiritual panic, and the search for freedom collide with the rigid conformity of modern societal expectations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John Updike","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49670717276410,"sku":"NEE2\/27\/07072026","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0635\/3387\/5450\/files\/IMG_2893_d042dc74-cdf2-4ea1-9c72-20ccb9cf940b.jpg?v=1783466847","url":"https:\/\/flippedpages.com\/products\/the-poorhouse-fair-rabbit-run","provider":"Flipped Pages","version":"1.0","type":"link"}