Appointment in Samarra
O’Hara did for fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: surveyed its social life and drew its psychic outlines, but he did it in utterly worldly terms, without Faulkner’s taste for mythic inferenceMore O’Hara did for fictional Gibbsville, Pennsylvania what Faulkner did for Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi: surveyed its social life and drew its psychic outlines, but he did it in utterly worldly terms, without Faulkner’s taste for mythic inference or the basso profundo of his prose. Julian English is a man who squanders what fate gave him. He lives on the right side of the tracks, with a country club membership and a wife who loves him. His decline and fall, over the course of just 72 hours around Christmas, is a matter of too much spending, too much liquor, and a couple of reckless gestures. That his calamity is petty and preventable only makes it more powerful. In Faulkner, the tragedies all seem to be taking place on Olympus, even when they’re happening among the low-lifes. In O’Hara, they could be happening to you. Less
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David Lentz rated it it was amazing
about 6 years ago
O'Hara's distinctive literary voice is both unique and disarming. For the first hundred pages I was unsure that O'Hara was even a competent writer, nevermind author of one of the century's great novels. His narrative technique and dialogue both are steeped in the jargon o. Read full review
Jim rated it it was amazing
I had never read anything by O'Hara before, and he probably would have stayed off my radar forever if I hadn't read Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways. in which Valerie Hemingway states that O'Hara was an author recommended to her by Papa himself(but not. Read full review
Jake rated it liked it
almost 7 years ago
On the back of this novel, Hemingway offered the following blurb: "if you want to read a book by a man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well, read Appointment in Samarra." Unfortunately, the subject John O'Hara knows so much about. Read full review
Tony rated it it was amazing
about 3 years ago
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA. (1934). John O’Hara. *****.
I like to go back and re-read books that I have read years and years ago that I only remember as being really good at the time. I first read this first novel by O’Hara in the late 1950s, when I was in high school. I was i. Read full review
Teresa rated it liked it
Segundo a sinopse, Encontro em Samarra é um clássico da literatura norte-americana, com momentos de humor negro (pelos quais me "pelo", mas que aqui me escaparam).
Comprei-o porque consta da lista Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels .
Li-o porque um utilizador do Goodreads. Read full review
Rolls rated it liked it
almost 3 years ago
This is on The Modern Libraries Top 100 Novels? I can see no reason why. It's a good book - but top 100? Come on! This should be like # 552 on a list of the 1000 best novels.
aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing
over 2 years ago
The stifling atmosphere of small town life is so vividly displayed here that alone made the book difficult for me. I'm not old enough to know what middle class mores were in fact like in the 1930's but many so-called canon Great Books depict the same types of people, occu. Read full review
Alex rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: the useless
It seems like Appointment in Samarra (SOM-a-rah) is going to be another one of those light comedies about silly rich people, the kind we've seen quite enough of already thank you - and then it gets close and slips the knife in.
Julian English is a useless person: an idle r. Read full review
Mike Moore rated it it was amazing
over 2 years ago
A remarkably succinct novel about social standing, gender relations, economic disadvantage, sex and death.
John O'Hara is often thought a middling writer, but for at least the 200-odd pages of this work he is an absolute master. Covering an astounding panorama of themes an. Read full review
Claire rated it it was amazing
over 1 year ago