Finished Th 2/22/24
This is an ancient paperback that I had never read. I'm so glad I finally got to it because I really love this anthology.
All of the stories are not plot driven and I really appreciate the change of pace.
O'Hara covers most of the 20th century especially the 20's through the 60's.
Gay characters are presented, but there really wasn't a vocabulary to describe them.
I am going to order 'BUTTERFIELD 8' and 'APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA' for my Kindle.
From the collection's page at Kirkus Reviews:
"Mostly short, but some longish, stories are introduced by O'Hara's back-of-my-hand reply to current fiction reviewing and its "spiteful condescension" and "abusive criticism" and his demand for more "speaking up...to the unimaginative... and dullards..." by fiction writers and readers. After this personally belligerent send off, word-weighing might seem to be in line. In the more than twenty inclusions however this author's ability to create characters and situations, in unpretentious words, is always evident while his knowledge of human flaws and failings in men and women and his inventories of the resulting tragedies, usually domestic, go deep. Grim he is, even in his humor; precise, too, with the shadings in relationships, of changes in them (Money); aware (The Bucket of Blood) of sensitivities where none might seem to exist; compassionate of a has-been (The First Day), of deviates (The Engineer and Jurge Dulrumple); and revealing (A Short Walk from the Station). Here although sex has its importance, set in his Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, homeplace and other areas, are good examples of O'Hara's work."
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