Appointment in Samarra (Vintage Classics)
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Review
"Exceptionally brilliant." --"New York Herald Tribune
""[O'Hara] is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust." --Lionel Trilling, "The New York Times
""Dramatic . . . exciting . . . vivid and written at high speed . . . accurate and often penetrating." --"The Nation
""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,""" --Ernest Hemingway --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
""[O'Hara] is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust." --Lionel Trilling, "The New York Times
""Dramatic . . . exciting . . . vivid and written at high speed . . . accurate and often penetrating." --"The Nation
""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,""" --Ernest Hemingway --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
'For all its excellence as a social panorama and a sketch of a marriage, it is as a picture of a man destroyed by drink and pride that Appointment in Samarra lives frighteningly in the mind' John Updike
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An excellent look at a Christmas weekend in the life of Julian English, a Cadillac dealer in a small town in Pennyslvania, and his wife Caroline. Many scenes, especially those that take place at the local country club, are expertly sketched and in Dr English, Julian's father, O'Hara creates a model of concise characterization. I did find the flashbacks in the lives of Julian and Caroline somewhat tedious, however.The book also works as a slice of history, from a time when the full devastation to be wrought by the Great Depression was not forseen. The ending, reminiscent of "The Great Gatsby", has a beautiful irony which lingers in the mind.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John O'Hara's bleak depiction of suffocating small town America is spot on in Appointment in Samarra.
Alcoholic cadillac dealer Julian English makes one mistake that rapidly spirals out of control. He knows how difficult it will be to make amends for throwing a drink in the face of the town bore Harry after a particularly tedious evening spent in his company, but he tries anyway - albeit unsuccesfully.
No one likes Harry, but that doesn't make a difference because it's a small town and he wields power over many of the influential people there because he's lent money to many of them. There's a feeling that English is caught in a trap and doesn't know what to do to get out of it and whatever he does seems to make things worse as he manages to alienate friends and family and even his beloved wife.
Appointment in Samarra is written in a style that is sparse and precise with great psychological insight.
Alcoholic cadillac dealer Julian English makes one mistake that rapidly spirals out of control. He knows how difficult it will be to make amends for throwing a drink in the face of the town bore Harry after a particularly tedious evening spent in his company, but he tries anyway - albeit unsuccesfully.
No one likes Harry, but that doesn't make a difference because it's a small town and he wields power over many of the influential people there because he's lent money to many of them. There's a feeling that English is caught in a trap and doesn't know what to do to get out of it and whatever he does seems to make things worse as he manages to alienate friends and family and even his beloved wife.
Appointment in Samarra is written in a style that is sparse and precise with great psychological insight.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
O'Hara pierces the character of the Protestant elite, which in some ways set off a stampede in literature that continued to deconstruct WASP culture throughout 20th century literature. Set in a pseudonymous town resembling O'Hara's own Pottsville, Pennsylvania of the 1920's, this tale of an insecure WASP who precipitates his own demise by tossing a drink in the face of the town's most prominent and moneyed Catholic, builds to a feverish yet melancholy end. A book that influenced many great modern writers, it is a timeless story of class resentment and the downward spiral of a tortured soul in a comfortable existence.
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