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.
A daily journal of our lives (begun in October 2010), in photos (many taken by my wife, Evie) and words, mostly from our home on Chautauqua Lake, in Western New York, where my wife Evie and I live, after my having retired from teaching English for forty-five years in Hawaii, Turkey, and Ohio. We have three children, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandson, as you will notice if you follow my blog since we often travel to visit them. Photo from our porch taken on 11/03/2024 at 7:07 AM
Sunday, May 8, 2016
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA: JOHN O'HARA
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.
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