20th Century Appointment In Samarra - Softcover

Ohara, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141180064 ISBN 13: 9780141180069

Publisher: Penguin Classic, 1997

Synopsis

Set in the fictional town of Gibbsville, this is an account of the last three days in the life of Julian, a car salesman who falls victim to his own reckless sexual appetite and the selfish, fast country-club set in which he moves.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A twentieth-century classic, Appointment in Samarra" is the first and most widely read book by the writer Fran Leibowitz called "the real F. Scott Fitzgerald."
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville social circuit is electrified with parties and dances, where the music plays late into the night and the liquor flows freely. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English--the envy of friends and strangers alike. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction. Appointment in Samarra" brilliantly captures the personal politics and easy bitterness of small-town life. It is John O'Hara's crowning achievement, and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence of a major American novelist.

From the Back Cover

“Exceptionally brilliant.” —New York Herald Tribune

“[O'Hara] is the only American writer to whom America presents itself as a social scene in the way it once presented itself to Henry James, or France to Proust.” —Lionel Trilling, The New York Times

“Dramatic . . . exciting . . . vivid and written at high speed . . . accurate and often penetrating.” —The Nation

“If you want to read a book by a man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well, read Appointment in Samarra.” —Ernest Hemingway

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classic
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0141180064
• ISBN 13: 9780141180069
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288