The Centaur

by John Updike

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ?TRANGER The Centaur is a modern retelling of the legend of Chiron, the noblest and wisest of the centaurs, who, painfully wounded yet unable to die, gave up his immortality on behalf of Prometheus. In the retelling, Olympus becomes small-town Olinger High School; Chiron is George Caldwell, a science teacher there; and Prometheus is Caldwell's fifteen-year-old son, Peter. Brilliantly...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449912167
• ISBN13: 9780449912164
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Bittersweet and precise

Now, normally I read science fiction, it's the bread and butter that I grew up on and I still love reading old and new SF. But I like to challenge myself with what I consider "literature" to read those books that everyone considers classics and see what everyone is talking about. Most of them take lots of effort to get through, you have to concentrate intently on just about every page, pay close attention to plot and even in the end it might not all make sense. Sometimes these can be frustrating affairs and I wonder why I even bother and why I don't stick to the overall much easier to read SF genre. Books like this remind me why I read literature. Simply put this has to be one of the most memorable books I've ever read. You don't so much read it as live it, immersing yourself in another time and place long gone. You can feel the icy sting of winter on your face, sense the tension of school both for teacher and student and hear the hopeful note in George Caldwell's voice even if he never seems to hear it. The book is simple enough, George Caldwell is a teacher who feels out of place in life, constantly putting himself down and sometimes not even sure why he carries on. He has a son and the relationship between father and son over a few days in a Pennslyvania 1940's winter is what makes up this novel and what makes this story work. Uplike seems to lovingly craft each scene with meticulous detail, not a word is out of place and he turns the most mundane aspects of life into something to be celebrated, chances are he'll make you look at routine things that you do around your life in a totally different manner. The father-son relationship is touching and refreshingly complex, there aren't any easy explanations, or answers. The book has a certain mythological aspect to it, Updike attempts to compare the tale of Chiron the Centaur's (hence the title) death and his relationship with his son Prometheus and link that to the story of George and his son and most of the characters in the book can be linked with the old Greek gods. If one so desires, it's great fodder for a paper if the teacher gives you an assignment like that but for most readers they won't even care, just go with the flow of the book, take the Greek god scenes (there aren't that many blatant ones, mostly in the beginning, after that it gets very subtle) for what they're worth and just enjoy the story and the words. I can't see anyone not liking this book, it's short and poetic, bittersweet and uplifting, something for everyone. Perhaps if you don't care about the beauty of words and just want slapdash action and explosions, you might not like this but that's why we have Tom Clancy. Seriously, don't take this as pretentious "literature" but instead a darn fine novel that deserves to be read.

Boadening Horizons

_The Centaur_ is an excellent choice of reading for anyone trying to expand their horizons. In _The Centaur_, John Updike masterfully weaves a 1945 small town, Olinger, and the Greek world of myth to depict a few days a 15 year old boy, Peter Caldwell, spends with his father, George Caldwell. Through several themes, Updike tells the story of three days young Peter spent with his father. The most dominant of these themes is that of Greek mythology. Nearly all of the characters in the novel have a mythological counter part to advance their meaning in the novel. Peter has Prometheus while George's counterpart is the noble centaur Chiron. Each character has special attributes that make them stand out in the reader's mind and each has their faults that brings them down to a human level. Whether it is an obscene hitch hiker or a star athlete who isn't to bright, there is a character in _The Centaur_ that everyone can identify with. I am an AP student that chose to read _The Centaur_ for a school project because it peeked my interests (and it qualified for some of the possible bonus points.) I didn't know what I was getting myself into! _The Centaur_ made me think on more levels than any of the books I had previously read. Bouncing from multiple points of view and changing between parallel universes, Updike uses a variety of techniques to tell his story. However, it isn't just how Updike tells the story it is also the story that is told that makes this novel a modern classic. The story centers around three days when Peter is stuck with his father because their car keeps breaking down. After reading _The Centaur_ I thought about my own life and how this story related to it. "There was a word-[Peter] did not know it but believed [George] did-that waited between [them] to be pronounced" is powerful language! Incidentally the word was never spoken, however, the moment exists in almost every relationship, when there is a connection between two people, that both people sense, yet neither person verbally recognizes that Updike captures so well. Anyone looking to broaden their horizons should definitely read _The Centaur_, it is an American classic.

better than the last fifteen books you read

This is perhaps my favorite Updike novel. The pathos and love of the relationship between Mr. Caldwell and his son Peter is the best writing of a father-son relationship i have ever read. Simply Mr. Caldwell is too good for this world and one of Updike's more likeable characters. His novels of the 50's and 60's seem to have more heart and vividness than some of his later work (particularly Roger's Version and S. - both of which i found lacking). But in the Centaur Updike makes a descriptive paradise out of the most mundane aspects of life: a broken down car, a high-school pep rally, morning coffee and much much more. Such things Updike turns into gold. Truly most of the mythological stuff went over my head (my knowledge of ancient super-heros and comic books being mediocre at best), but i thought the interplay of the old fable and the story was handled well (Updike can handle anything well). Besides having some of the most touching and memorable scenes I have read in a long time - (the images of this book have implanted themselves so firmly upon my mind that I feel i experienced the life of this novel rather than read it) - it also plays wonderfully with time - time running out, time misplaced, the span of three average days containing the musings and yearnings of a lifetime etc. I really cannot think of one thing this book is missing: the writing, predictably, is amazing, the characterization is on the level of the Rabbit novels, and the originality of the format and the boldness of the narrative are dazzling. What more can I say?

Simply, A Star in the Sky of American Literature

I first read Updike's "Centaur" when I was not ready for it. Years later, and having become a father, I went back to it and was absolutely *floored* by the poignant honesty it so vividly conveys. This book is for anyone who knows the sorrow of wanting to feel closer to another, and yet having life's circumstances conspire against that goal. It is also for those who know that the great mystery in this life is that our ideals are out there, beckoning to us, even though we know we will never live up to them. There can be pain in that, and in this case, too much to bear. Updike is absolutely right: we are part mythical (our ideals) and part human (our flaws), and sometimes the tension in straddling the two worlds is just too great. Anyone who supposes to know anything about America's great literary tradition needs to have read "The Centaur."

So real John-so real

Twenty five years ago, I taught this book for the first tme and marvelled as adolescents handled myth and realty wthout wondering "what's it all mean?" Nobody questioned any of the scenes or worried about when Chiron and George were themselves. My son was two. He's 27 now and I am still teaching about books although the Centaur has been replaced by other books. I read it again last summer as I adjusted to a son making six figures for doing what I do but in the silicon valley with adults who need to know about computers. George, you are truer now than I thought you were way back before my son smiled and taught computers with Paradise Lost under his arm. Your creator knew fathers and sons, teachers and students, schools and homes as he made you. And despite the fact that Rabbit is dead and many more characters have spun from his web, nothing will replace the scene in the old buick and the night in the hotel in my memory banks. John Updike is the writer of my generation, surpassing Heller, Vonnegut, Irving, Kerouac, and Salinger. He makes real people and sees the bitterweetness of the time we have here