My Father on the Verge of Disgrace (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Updike
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Short story
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Teaching or teachers, Family or family life, United States or Americans, Parents and children, 1940’s, Depression, economic, 1930’s, Pennsylvania, Fathers
- Locales: Pennsylvania
“My Father on the Verge of Disgrace,” like other Updike works (for example, The Centaur, “Pigeon Feathers”), is an initiation story set in rural Pennsylvania before and just after World War II and typically carries a heavier weight than its slight appearance. The story is almost anecdotal in its first-person narration: A young boy living in a large house with his parents and his maternal grandparents during the Depression worries that his father will “fall from his precarious ledge of respectability.” His father lost his job as a china salesman the year the boy was...
[The entire page is 586 words long]
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