Appointment in Samarra (O'Hara)

Appointment in Samarra 
John O'Hara, 1934
Penguin Group USA
251 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780375719202 


Summary
Modern Library's List of the 20th-Century's 100 Best Novels

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 publisher.)