John O'Hara: Stories (LOA #282) (Library of America John O'Hara Edition)

First encountered John O'Hara in a New Yorker short story collection and I've been on the look out for the best short story collection of his since. His set-ups are perfect snippets of life demonstrating pretensions (especially of the rich), personal motives, sometimes narcissism, love and loss And O'Hara does this at times largely through dialogue.Every time I get my hands on an anthology, I judge its worth on the basis of three stories. I decide whether I should read the entire collection on the strength of the first, second-to-the-last, and the last stories only. If the title story is not in any of these places, I’ll read four. I don’t know if editors really locate the strongest stories in this order, but it works for me, given a hectic day job and all.But for this collection, sample anything in the middle or those randomly available in the internet. He doesn't have a clear must-read-first a la What We Talk About of Carver, but each one is elegant. If you liked the one you tried, you will like the entire book. I dig into each one randomly, usually in-between longer works, and mark on the contents which one I've finished.Thank you to LOA for assembling this collection.

Wonderful short stories. Many with endings that surprise you. Being from Central Pennsylvania I had heard of John O'Hara but never read anything by him. No idea what took me so long but glad that I started reading him now.

I was introduced to Ohara about two months ago. Have read three novels. I am about 40% through the short stories. Many of the stories have a similar theme but they are still great stories. Ohara is one talented writer.

Everyone who reads American English needs to get to know the work of John O'Hara. A master. Brilliant. Ahead of his time. And pretty much unread today. Pity.

I have always loved John O'Hara, and these stories are great. I read at least one of them every night before I go to bed. I would put him up there with F. Scott Fitzgerald, maybe with Hemingway.

Interesting stories that are somewhat dated in their subject matter. They lack the timeless feel that I was seeking.

He's one of the greats. More Fitzgerald than Fitzgerald, often.

LOA John O'Hara is a magnificent collection.

I came to this knowing nothing of John O'Hara and learnt that this volume of short stories is chosen from 10 books of short stories published by the author (and that another Library of America volume will follow containing among other things stories featuring Pal Joey) and that they fall into two distinct groups, mostly short 'oblique' stories published before 1949 and then a mix of short and longer 'plottier' (as the editor puts it) stories written after 1960. Many focus on the author's experience of life in Pottsville, fictionalised as Gibbsville, and some are drawn from his experience in Hollywood, but generally the range is vast, though with some serious focus on the love life of his characters most of whom also it should be noted drink quite a bit (as the author did himself before he was around 50, when he gave it up). The collection has more of the post-1960 stories than the ones from before 1949.I enjoyed most of this stories quite a lot, some greatly, and some (mostly the Hollywood ones) left me cold. The 'oblique' ones I found could be too oblique for my understanding on occasion and the 'plottier' ones could tend to creak under the weight of the plotting. But overall I was very pleased now to have read some 800 pages of this author's work; and would strongly recommend this to others.