John O'Hara (1) (1905–1970)

I came to this novel having seen the 1957 film version and being intrigued with the film and wondering how faithful it was to the novel. I was surprised to find that the core of the film was not the main body of the novel, but only covered the final thirty pages or so. Yet this was no disappointment. I'd not read O'Hara before, but I will read more. This is a rather wonderful novel encompassing decades in the life of the central figure, Joe Chapin, a well-to-do Pennsylvania lawyer. The novel, told in one 390-page chapter and one 18-page one, skips around chronologically, but always fluidly, organically, as if the characters and time periods were taking turns with the story. It is filled with rich characters, some spectacular writing, and sometimes that writing reaches the level of magnificence. It is filled with insights into the wealthy of a middling-sized city in the first half of the twentieth century, and some of O'Hara's descriptions of political thought could have been written today. In the end, it made me care deeply about the sort of man one might not particularly care for. It is a real work of art, expressed with a wry poetry and an unblinking eye.… (lisätietoja)

The novel explores the life of Gloria Wandrous, a young woman having an affair with Weston Liggett, an older, married businessman. Set in New York circa 1931, it fills in her family background and sexual history, and it locates her within a circle of friends, their relationships, and economic struggles, providing a closely observed tour of "the sordid and sensational lives of people on the fringe of café society and the underworld".[4] The minor character of Jimmy Malloy, a junior newspaper reporter, serves as O'Hara’s alter ego; he has the style of a Yale University graduate but not the means.[5]

The title of the novel derives from the pattern of telephone exchange names in the United States and Canada. Until the early 1970s, telephone exchanges were indicated by two letters and commonly referred to by names instead of by numbers, with the BU represented on the telephone dial as "28," followed by four digits. In December 1930 an additional digit was appended to the exchange name. BUtterfield was an exchange that provided service to Manhattan's well-to-do Upper East Side, and BUtterfield 8 was still new when the novel was published.[5]… (lisätietoja)