Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulA schoolteacher and his art-minded son in a Pennsylvania town, both wanting to get away, seen through Greek myth
The Centaur
by John Updike
A schoolteacher who has given up on life and his son who dreams of New York are tied to figures from Greek myth
The story is set in Alton, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s. George Caldwell is a schoolteacher who has largely given up on life, and his son Peter is a sensitive, art-minded boy who dreams of becoming a painter in a big city. Both want to escape their hometown. Throughout, the narrative moves between the everyday present and a mythic register: George is associated with the centaur Chiron and with Prometheus, and the mechanic Mr. Hummel with Hephaestus.
More about this book
Who
George Caldwell, a schoolteacher, his son Peter, his wife Vera and the mechanic Mr. Hummel.
World
Alton, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s.
What makes it different
The narrative shifts between the realistic present and a mythic register, using ancient myth the way Joyce did in Ulysses.
Feel
Layered and reflective. It won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The CentaurWikipedia