How is "A & P" by John Updike, a picaresque story?...?

Question

Or how is the story "The Swimmer" by John Cheeer a picaresque story?

Answer 1

A "picaresque" story is about a wandering hero, usually a rogue. By that definition, neither story is really all the picaresque. The narrator in "A&P" is a bit like a picaro in that he makes a sudden and somewhat unusual decision, which clearly impacts his life; this makes him somewhat similar to someone like a Roderick Random or Don Quixote. The main character in "The Swimmer" is wandering (kind of) and his project of swimming through all his neighbor's pools is something a picaresque hero would do; however, the tone of that story is very different from ordinary picaresque literature.