Appointment in Samarra

By: John O'Hara, Neil Gower, Charles McGrath - introduction

Narrated by: Christian Camargo

The writer whom Fran Lebowitz compared to the author of The Great Gatsby, calling him “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald,” makes his Penguin Classics debut with this beautiful deluxe edition of his best-loved book.

One of the great novels of small-town American life, Appointment in Samarra is John O’Hara’s crowning achievement. In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.

Brimming with wealth and privilege, jealousy and infidelity, O’Hara’s iconic first novel is an unflinching look at the dark side of the American dream—and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence if a major American writer.

Critic reviews

“With a dazzling new cover and smart new introduction, one of my favorite novels, Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara, is reborn. . . . This novel about class, drinking and sex is fun—and incredibly smart.” —Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune

“[A] gorgeous new edition . . . Appointment in Samarra still astonishes and amazes; and [O’Hara’s] style and themes—a bridge, if you will, between F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Updike—remain painfully and beautifully relevant today.” —Huffington Post

“Suspenseful, character-driven—it deserves to be read more.” —Joshua Ferris, Details

“Transfixing . . . A Jazz Age novel set amidst the early throes of the Depression . . . A striking antidote to contemporary novels like Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts and Erskine Caldwell’s Tobacco Road, which remain startling for their implacably cynical view of humanity. O’Hara offers a more nuanced, and more subversive view of the national mood at the cusp of the Depression.” —Nathaniel Rich, The Daily Beast

“Nobody who’s read it ever forgets Appointment in Samarra.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“An attractive new edition of Samarra, with deckled edges and a jazzy cover.” —The Philadelphia Review of Books

“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

“Appointment in Samarra lives frighteningly in the mind.” —John Updike

“It is alive with compelling characters and O’Hara’s dead-on dialogue and sharp observations.” —Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row

“[O’Hara] was as acute a social observer as Fitzgerald, as spare a stylist as Hemingway, and in his creation of Gibbsville, in western Pennsylvania, he invented a kind of small-bore variation on Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.” —Los Angeles Times

“An author I love is John O’Hara. . . . I think he’s been forgotten by time, but for dialogue lovers, he’s a goldmine of inspiration.” —Douglas Coupland, Shelf Awareness

“O’Hara was one of Mom’s favorite authors. . . . ‘So I finally read Appointment in Samarra,’ I told her. ‘I'd always thought that book had something to do with Iraq.’ . . . ‘It does apply to Iraq, even if that’s not at all what it’s about. It’s a book about setting things in motion and then being too proud and stubborn to apologize and to change course.’ ” —from The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Unexpected pleasure...

Reading 100 Modern Novels, so probably wouldn't have come across this otherwise...Although a dated setting, the characters pop off the page..Some storylines, especially Al Greco, were left hanging, but life doesn't always tie off neatly...

Not sure yet...

Just finished and I'm a little stunned. Felt like I was finally figuring it out and it ended. It starts with many character, introduced quickly, then narrows it down to a manageable few. Still, I wasn't prepared for the end at all.... Narration was excellent and the author captured the times and society so well, I always liked forward to my next listen.

Didn't think I'd like it

This was a surprise. Another one from the classic 100 a friend challenged me to read. It was fun to go back in this time and try to understand the hip lingo. More important though is the portryal of the wealthy, their vices, vanity, and shortcomings. Scary that I don't believe much has changed.

excellent & a bit existentialist & Hemingway-esque

very nice writing. nice period detail. a bit Gatsby-ish but written with Hemingway-esque tone, and with the "lost generation" themes running through it, some aimless, drunken living, frank detail and again i think very existentialist feeling.

Appointment in Samarra

Story: Not much of a story but it is interesting background and writing. It was slowed in the middle but then came to a quick ending.

Production: The reader was excellent and the effects were good.

Overall, I would recommend to buy but do not make it an urgent buy.