JOHN O’HARA: FOUR NOVELS OF THE 1930s

For most of the 20th Century, John O’Hara was considered one of the best short story writers in the world. O’Hara tried his hand at novels, with mixed results. His first novel, Appointment in Samarra (1934), a story of destiny and tragedy, remains one of O’Hara’s most popular books. Butterfield 8 (1935) explores the speakeasy world of a hedonistic Manhattan. Gloria Wandrous, based on a woman O’Hara knew, lives in a world of alcohol and sex. In 1960, a greatly “modified” version of Butterfield 8 earned Elizabeth Taylor her first Academy Award,

Hope of Heaven (1938) is set in Los Angeles and centers around a relationship between Peggy Henderson, a young leftist woman working at a bookstore, and Jim Malloy, a world-weary screenwriter. struggling to make it in Hollywood. In Pal Joey (1940), a novel in the form of fourteen interconnected stories, O’Hara’s mastery of the short story comes into play to create one of his most powerful works. This novel was also the basis for the Rodgers & Hart musical. These four novels, flaws and all, are worth reading. Are you a John O’Hara fan? GRADE: B+

20 thoughts on “JOHN O’HARA: FOUR NOVELS OF THE 1930s

    1. george Post author

      Steve, O’Hara captured the essence of the American Middle Class in the first half of the 20th Century. Crime writer George V. Higgins thought O’Hara was the best American short story writer.

      Reply
  1. Deb

    Not a huge fan of his novels (as you note, they’re somewhat uneven), but I love, love, love his short stories—in fact, he’s often credited with creating the concept of the “New Yorker short story” (he published about 200 stories there over a fifty-year span). I’ve often said that John P. Marquand and John O’Hara were the two writers who best limned the (White) American experience in the first half of the 20th century. Marquand with all his WASP-y Brahmins and O’Hara with his first & second generation Irish and Italian Catholics. There’s a dissertation in Comparative Literary Studies if anyone wants it—I won’t be using it.

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    1. george Post author

      Deb, you’re right about John P. Marquand and John O’Hara and their fictional studies of the American (White) experience in the first half of the 20th Century. I’m glad the LIBRARY OF AMERICA is returning many of these works back into print.

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      1. george Post author

        Rick, sadly not many minorities appear in John O’Hara’s stories. It’s just a matter of accuracy, not political correctness.

  2. Jeff Meyerson

    Yes! I’ve read – literally – hundreds of his stories. I have a list somewhere where I’ve written down every one I’ve read. Whenever I found a new collection at the library or elsewhere, I would check to see if there were any stories I’d missed. I even found an early collection with a lot of very short stories.

    As for the novels listed, I’ve read three of them – not BUTTERFIELD 8 – though I don’t really think of PAL JOEY as a novel. I also have been trying to push myself to start the massive FROM THE TERRACE, which I picked up some years ago in a 1960s-era paperback.

    Oh, and I’ve read quite a bit of O’Hara’s non fiction and a couple of biographies. Not the nicest guy, perhaps, but I love the stories.

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    1. george Post author

      Jeff, you’re right about O’Hara being testy. But the stories are wonderful. I’ve read perhaps 50% of O’Hara stories, but it the LIBRARY OF AMERICA publishes all of O’Hara’s short stories I’ll read them all.

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  3. Jeff Meyerson

    I found my list! (It was in the bottom drawer of a desk in the den.) According to that list, I had read 262 stories by O’Hara – of course, the later ones tended to be much longer than the early ones. I also have a list of 54 stories I haven’t read (since I couldn’t find them), all short items published in the 1930s (probably in The New Yorker).

    I think the PAL JOEY stories were published as stories, then combined into the “novel” version.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I’m impressed! You read 262 of O’Hara’s stories and only have 54 left! The LIBRARY OF AMERICA plans to publish all of O’Hara’s short stories in several volumes. Everything O’Hara wrote should be available in a few years.

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  4. Michael Padgett

    I’d read “Appointment in Samarra” in college and decided it deserved a reread 5-6 years ago. It started me on an O’Hara binge that’s still ongoing. Only one of the novels, “The Lockwood Concern” is left, plus a massive number of stories, and I’m slowly working my way through the LOA collection. The conventional wisdom is that “Samarra” and “Butterfield 8” are the only first rate novels, but I’d disagree. “Ten North Frederick” is one of his best. I also really like some of the much maligned late novels, especially “Ourselves to Know”. And buried somewhere in the nearly 900 pages of “From the Terrace” there’s a really great 500 page novel.

    You and Deb are dead right about Marquand. I especially liked “Point of No Return”.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Michael, I need to read some of O’Hara’s later novels based on your comment! I have Marquand’s POINT OF NO RETURN on my shelves. Time to take it down and read it!

      Reply
  5. wolf

    I don’t remember reading anything by O’Hara, don’t know if he even was translated into German …
    And when at 18 my knowledge of Englsih was good enough (imho at least …) to read originals I was already concentrated on SF and Fantasy …
    Btw George, your articles often remind me how many stories and books have been written – only a small part of which I could read though I’ve been an avid reader all my life – while in school I used to read at least one book every day from our city library.
    Even more OT:
    I’ve knwn The New Yorker for a long time but of course had no chance to read it regularly – but in the last months I’ve become a big fan of it, looking at its twitter page every day!
    There are quite a few other twitter sites from the USA which I follow besides of course the NYT etc – so much to read and so little time …

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Wolf, THE New Yorker is famous for its cartoons as well as its fiction. Years ago, The New Yorker used to publish long non-fiction articles, but that seems to have become a thing of the Past.

      Reply
      1. Deb

        Well George, they did win the Pulitzer last year for Rowan Farrow’s long, non-fiction about Weinstein, etc.

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