Appointment in Samarra

I just finished Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. I really enjoyed how the novel started out with this story:

"The Appointment in Samarra"

(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])

The speaker is Death


There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

The interesting thing, was that the novel wasn't really about anything at all. The main character is a drunk who plays around on his wife (meeting Death in the marketplace). They spend most of the story at Christmas and post-Christmas parties. A series of drunken nights and hungover mornings culminated in a suicide (meeting Death in Samarra) and lots of regrets.

Apparently this was O'Hara's most well loved story, but I had a hard time getting into some of the characters. There was a string of incidents with the Mafia, and O'Hara described a lot of details of the mob just to make one incident occur.

I was surprised this novel was such a light read, compared to the other titles on the list. I enjoyed the author's style and the break from very monotonous and lengthy tomes. I'm looking forward to the next book: At Swim - Two Birds.

Another book I just finished: True Colors by Kristin Hannah. Not a great book.