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Appointment in Samarra/Butterfield 8/Hope of Heaven
1934: by John O'Hara- 3 novels in one book.
475 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
4 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
John O'Hara
228 books301 followersAmerican writer John Henry O'Hara contributed short stories to the New Yorker and wrote novels, such as
BUtterfield 8
(1935) and
Ten North Frederick
(1955).
Best-selling works of John Henry O'Hara include Appointment in Samarra . People particularly knew him for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue. O'Hara, a keen observer of social status and class differences, wrote frequently about the socially ambitious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O&#...
Best-selling works of John Henry O'Hara include Appointment in Samarra . People particularly knew him for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue. O'Hara, a keen observer of social status and class differences, wrote frequently about the socially ambitious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O&#...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 23, 2012
A collection of three novels, only one of which struck me: Appointment in Samarra, in which a local businessman suffers through a Shakespearean tragedy. I wanted to read Butterfield 8 because it had been made into a movie, but I found it superficial and shallow. Having recently moved to the Keystone State, I enjoyed reading about the partially fictitious towns and townships that O'Hara writes so well.
November 8, 2011
I read Butterfield 8 for a discussion, followed by Appointment in Samarra. I thought the latter was the better book.
June 29, 2014
If you enjoy Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road) you will like this book. The writing of times gone.by.is.refreshing (early 20th century) Read this book!
September 28, 2018
Who are these people!?
Who are the human beings O'Hara based his characters on, and why did I waste a portion of my mortal life reading about them?
Argh.
I do this every once in a while.
I will read a "must read list" and I will get excited about a new author, so I will purchase a book. And then, I will read the book and want to gouge my eyes, but I will insist on finishing because I invested in the paper the words are on.
No more O'Hara for me. Nope. No mas.
If I want to be introduced to people who are low-lifes, I know where to find them in the real world, no need to bring them into my mind.
Who are the human beings O'Hara based his characters on, and why did I waste a portion of my mortal life reading about them?
Argh.
I do this every once in a while.
I will read a "must read list" and I will get excited about a new author, so I will purchase a book. And then, I will read the book and want to gouge my eyes, but I will insist on finishing because I invested in the paper the words are on.
No more O'Hara for me. Nope. No mas.
If I want to be introduced to people who are low-lifes, I know where to find them in the real world, no need to bring them into my mind.
July 11, 2018
3 3/4 stars
April 24, 2013
John O'Hara is one of those authors whom I always meant to read. I had heard that he was a bit like Fitzgerald, a favorite, and I knew that Appointment in Samarra appeared in Time's list of 100 great novels.
My hopes for good fiction were exceeded by this trio of novels. Of the three, my favorite was Butterfield 8, an affecting story of an older man, a younger woman and their circles. Appointment in Samarra, the author's first novel, is a fine tale of the consequences of a mistake in a small town. Hope of Heaven, set in the shadow of Hollywood, is the slightest of the three but still retains the author's distinctive flavor.
Mr. O'Hara had a great ear; his dialogue sounds right. He also had a talent for capturing places, from the fictional Pennsylvania town of Gibbsville to New York to LA. His prose is grittier than Fitzgerald's but not as terse or spare as Hemingway's; indeed, it seems very modern (I hear echoes of him in Joseph Heller, especially Something Happened). His characters and scenes put differences between the rich and working classes into sharp relief (he seems to hold a fair-sized grudge against the kind of elites who denied him an honorary degree from Yale). This is accentuated by the time, the Thirties, in which the stories are set.
I have read that John O'Hara has been forgotten and / or held in poor repute, perhaps because he angered people with conservative and truculent magazine and newspaper columns in the Sixties. That's a shame. Whatever personal failings his non-fiction exposed, his fiction should be read. John O'Hara deserves the sort of renewed appreciation afforded Richard Yates in recent years. Whether that happens or not, though, I strongly recommend that you read this collection of novels.
My hopes for good fiction were exceeded by this trio of novels. Of the three, my favorite was Butterfield 8, an affecting story of an older man, a younger woman and their circles. Appointment in Samarra, the author's first novel, is a fine tale of the consequences of a mistake in a small town. Hope of Heaven, set in the shadow of Hollywood, is the slightest of the three but still retains the author's distinctive flavor.
Mr. O'Hara had a great ear; his dialogue sounds right. He also had a talent for capturing places, from the fictional Pennsylvania town of Gibbsville to New York to LA. His prose is grittier than Fitzgerald's but not as terse or spare as Hemingway's; indeed, it seems very modern (I hear echoes of him in Joseph Heller, especially Something Happened). His characters and scenes put differences between the rich and working classes into sharp relief (he seems to hold a fair-sized grudge against the kind of elites who denied him an honorary degree from Yale). This is accentuated by the time, the Thirties, in which the stories are set.
I have read that John O'Hara has been forgotten and / or held in poor repute, perhaps because he angered people with conservative and truculent magazine and newspaper columns in the Sixties. That's a shame. Whatever personal failings his non-fiction exposed, his fiction should be read. John O'Hara deserves the sort of renewed appreciation afforded Richard Yates in recent years. Whether that happens or not, though, I strongly recommend that you read this collection of novels.
May 10, 2010
A collection of three novels, two of which I read. In Appointment in Samarra, a young businessman in the highest echelon of Gibbsville, PA society, suffers a Shakesperean meltdown. In Butterfield 8, O'Hara presents a soap opera with a cast of characters who live within the boundaries of a New York phone exchange.
October 20, 2008
Appointment in Samarra: 1930 Gibbsville, PA (actually Pottsville)--excellent story about the rich in a coal mining town and their slow self destruction. shout out to Hazleton!
Butterfield 8: 1930's in NYC, upper East Side. Affairs and call girls, redemption for the undeserving.
Butterfield 8: 1930's in NYC, upper East Side. Affairs and call girls, redemption for the undeserving.
July 29, 2009
This was O'Hara's second book. "Gibbsville" which is his town actually was Pottsville in Sch. County,Pa. Born and raised in a town 4 miles from Gibbsville, this new& upcoming Author became the talk of the county!! His style so new and scandalous!!
June 22, 2010
BCE; 3-in-1 anthology
August 26, 2011
These books are unbelievable. Hope of Heaven was one of the most perfect novellas I've ever read.
October 9, 2011
2007: While perhaps not great literature -- this book blew me totally away when I first read it in my teens. I reread some years ago and found a new slant on it -- but I still loved it.
February 9, 2015
I enjoyed this classic by John O'Hara about a small Pennsylvania town in 1930. The dialog was snappy, stream of consciousness interesting, and the story engrossing. I'll read more by this author.
December 5, 2013
classic.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews