Appointment in Samarra in A Book Walks Into a Bar

Nov 23, 2018 Travis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There should be a term for the dramatic equivalent to a comedy of errors, where the mistakes and miscues pile one upon the other turning a situation that was initially merely an unpleasant difficulty into a tragedy. Tragedy, though, is not really an accurate term for Appointment in Samarra as, traditionally, tragedies presuppose gallant, heroic characters who fall from grace. Julian English is not such a character, but his fall is, nevertheless, sad.

Julian is a character that, by all rights, we There should be a term for the dramatic equivalent to a comedy of errors, where the mistakes and miscues pile one upon the other turning a situation that was initially merely an unpleasant difficulty into a tragedy. Tragedy, though, is not really an accurate term for Appointment in Samarra as, traditionally, tragedies presuppose gallant, heroic characters who fall from grace. Julian English is not such a character, but his fall is, nevertheless, sad.

Julian is a character that, by all rights, we should not like. He comes from a well to do family (his father is a doctor), has a beautiful, intelligent wife, and has what, by all accounts, should be a great job as a Cadillac dealer, but he has gotten himself into trouble because of his own pettiness, stupidity, and selfishness, yet John O'Hara does such a great job of drawing this character that I could not help but hope that somehow Julian would be able to overcome his mistakes and that everything would turn out all right for him.

I think this is a case where we are so much in the mind of Julian that we cannot help but identify with him. Although several other characters play prominent roles--Luther (Lute) Fliegler, who works for Julian; Irma Fliegler, Lute's wife; Al Grecco, a mob enforcer; Caroline English, Julian's wife; Ed Charney, a local mob boss and Al's employer--Julian is clearly the central character with the supporting characters, despite being very well drawn in their own right, functioning primarily as role-players in Julian's story. When we are with Julian, we feel slighted and offended when he is slighted and offended. We feel the pressures of his job and his marriage. And we also overlook the fact that he is, in many ways, a complete asshole: he treats his wife terribly; he is rude to his servants; he behaves like a prick: the incident in which he throws a drink in Harry Reilly's face, his blatant flirting with Helene in front of Caroline and their friends, the fight that he gets into with one-armed Froggy Ogden. Practically everything we see of Julian in this novel paints him in a bad light, yet O'Hara still humanizes him enough that we sympathize with him.

The ending of this novel is not at all surprising granted Julian's short-tempered, self-pitying, self-centered nature and his desire for an easy solution to his very difficult marital (Caroline seems likely to leave him), financial (he is deeply in debt and his business prospects are dim), and social (his recent behavior has alienated him from many of his friends and the community at large) problems: (view spoiler). I like the concise nature of O'Hara's story-telling. He could have easily expanded this novel from its 240 pages (in my version) to 400 or even 500 pages by focusing more on the broad cast of characters and their interesting backgrounds, yet he telescopes the plot very well to the elements most essential to Julian's story and brings the narrative to a quick but unhurried and powerful conclusion.

This novel leads me to ponder whether Julian's fate can count as tragic given his nature. Can only the truly great be said to take tragic falls? Or can even those who have serious character flaws suffer tragedy? That is, is it a tragedy when one's terrible fate is not due to the whims of chance or circumstance but rather due to the very poor decisions that one makes, due even to one's very poor character? For me, I would have to say that the answer is, "no." Appointment in Samarra is not a tragedy because Julian is not a good person. His fate is the logical outcome of his character and behavior. Unlike many great tragic characters of literature, Julian gets what he deserves. What makes this short novel a great novel, though, is that, despite Julian being such a creep, we still care about him, almost even sympathize with him. ...more

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Dec 16, 2018 Quyen Wickham rated it liked it

What I like: a timely (1930s) perspective on mental health; O'Hara's ability to realistically capture conversation and individual thought. What I don't like (as much): it's hard to follow (normal conversation often can be) and there's a good chance you'll miss something if you aren't paying attention! ...more

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May 29, 2013 Emily marked it as to-read

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Dec 06, 2018 Jennifer marked it as dnf

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Sep 10, 2019 Kitty DV rated it really liked it

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