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A review by jwmcoaching
Butterfield 8 by John O'Hara
4.0
Wow, this must have caused quite a stink when it was published in 1935. It must have been like Fifty Shades or Peyton Place but multiplied by a million. Sex, adultery, abortion, drugs, alcohol, masturbation, orgies, it's all here. This gives us a look at what was really going on behind the scenes in Gatsby during roughly the same era. Unlike Fitzgerald, O'Hara doesn't scrimp on details.
As is mentioned in the introduction, this still wouldn't make it onto most high school syllabi today. And the dialogue... O'Hara can write dialogue like nobody's business. Forget Hemingway. If it wasn't for the fact that he is so explicit in his writing, he probably would be taught a lot more and be much more well known than he is. He's a realist to the core.
I still prefer Appointment at Samarra but this one is still a classic. It's a shame that the last 20 pages are a bust though. It's almost like O'Hara didn't really know how to bring things to a close so he just grasped at straws for an ending. I wish that he had stuck the landing but, otherwise, this is a real winner.
As is mentioned in the introduction, this still wouldn't make it onto most high school syllabi today. And the dialogue... O'Hara can write dialogue like nobody's business. Forget Hemingway. If it wasn't for the fact that he is so explicit in his writing, he probably would be taught a lot more and be much more well known than he is. He's a realist to the core.
I still prefer Appointment at Samarra but this one is still a classic. It's a shame that the last 20 pages are a bust though. It's almost like O'Hara didn't really know how to bring things to a close so he just grasped at straws for an ending. I wish that he had stuck the landing but, otherwise, this is a real winner.