Of the Farm: A Novel - Softcover

Updike, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345468228 ISBN 13: 9780345468222

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2004

Synopsis

“A small masterpiece . . . With Of the Farm, John Updike has achieved a sureness of touch, a suppleness of style, and a subtlety of vision that is gained by few writers of fi ction.”—The New York Times

In this short novel, Joey Robinson, a thirty-five-year-old New Yorker, describes a visit he makes, with his second wife and eleven-year-old stepson, to the Pennsylvania farm where he grew up and where his aging mother now lives alone. For three days, a quartet of voices explores the air, making confessions, seeking alignments, quarreling, pleading, and pardoning. They are not entirely alone: ghosts (fathers, lovers, children) press upon them, as do phantoms from the near future (nurses, lawyers, land developers). Of the Farm concerns the places people choose to live their lives, and the strategies they use to stand their ground.

About this title

From the Publisher:

5 1-hour cassettes

From the Inside Flap:

Joey Robinson is a thirty-five-year-old advertising consultant working in the urban jungle of Manhattan. One day, Joey decides to return to the farm where he grew up, and where his mother still lives. Accompanied by his newly acquired second wife and an eleven-year-old stepson, he begins to reassess and evaluate the course his life has taken. For three days, a quartet of voices explores the country air, relates stories, makes confessions, seeks solace, and hopes for love. But all of their emotional musings and reflections pale when tragedy strikes— one that threatens to separate the family, even as it draws them closer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0345468228
• ISBN 13: 9780345468222
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144