The farther away I got from reading Aopointment in Samarra, the more book seemed to creep into my thoughts. Julian English appears to be living the life of Riley, running a succesful business, claiming membership in the most exclusive club, happily married to a beautiful and devoted wife. But scratch just under the surface and Julian's life looks much more raw. Unbeknownst to anyone, he is deeply in debt and his business is in danger of going under. He suspects his wife, probably wrongly so, of being disloyal. Things begin to completely unravel when, at a high society, club Christmas party, Julian tosses his scotch in the face of one of the town's leading businessmen, a man to whom Julian owes a great deal of money. Julian begins to lose more and more control and retreats into his own unstable musings, unable to honestly evaluate his life and those around him.

The early stages of this story feel like a Victorian period novel reset in a 1920's, noir mystery. O'Hara examines much of the same social behavior as does Austen or Dickens, only O'Hara's characters are American to the core. As Julian's behavior and mental state deteriorate, it becomes clear that O'Hara has constructed a tragic figure in his main character, one who is completely invested in all of the trimmings of his social status but devoid of the self esteem or guile to maintain the life.

O'Hara's novel has an edge to it, one that evokes Dashiel Hammet or John D. MacDonald. The story and and style also call to mind Georges Simenon, who also liked to study characters whose minds and lives seemed to be decompensating.

Recommended.

Four bones!!!! ( )