APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA: JOHN O'HARA

This was considered racy back in 1934 when it came out; it opens with a married couple having sex and the wife seems to enjoy it.  Shame.  It was a strange book in many ways, dated, about life in suburbia back in the 1930's, where class is all, as is the country club you belong to, the kind of car you drive.  Julian English, the protagonist, either sort of owns a Cadillac dealership.  He knows all the right people, belongs to the right country club, and both he and his wife Caroline are part of the 'in crowd' in Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, a posh suburb.

Julian, however, is not happy, with his marriage, his job, his life.  And we learn this as the novel progresses.  First, he throws a drink into the face of good friend at the country club because he is tired of listening to his stories.  He then is unfaithful to his wife, with the girl friend of another friend, who happens to be a mobster.  He then threatens his best friend at dinner, then punches out a couple of Polish lawyers at a restaurant, all in 36 hours. His life is a mess, his business going under, and he's lost his friends if they ever were his friends.  And though he loves his wife, he seems to go out of his way to hurt her.  O'Hara seems the predecessor of both John Updike and John Cheever, with his characters, setting, and unhappiness of the seemingly well to do.  I did not love the book but liked it enough to stick with it to the tragic end.