Book Review: "The New York Stories" by John O'Hara

John O'Hara is a writer I have been interested in for a while, mostly for his depictions of Golden Age New York, but also because of the very intense cynicism in his characters. The characters are cynics yes, but they are also in an era which will come to be known as one of the most incredible cultural eras of the American 20th century - it sure as hell doesn't feel that way though. John O'Hara is for the New York 'Golden Age' what F. Scott Fitzgerald is for the Jazz Age. He holds up a piece of reflective glass stained with their own dirt and then sends it crashing down over their heads. I adore it.

There are several short stories in this anthology and every last one of them is worth reading. However, we have to rate them here and so, I'll tell you that the best short story in the anthology is probably 'We're Friends Again' in which O'Hara shows a jumble that happens between two married couples. It is almost as if he is trying to create a vague sense of people who may not like each other through the amount of dialogue he gives to one character in comparison to another.

The almost constant commentary on the culture of New York at this time is also something to be marveled at. One thing I love about novels is when they look critically at the culture they are surrounded with. The problem with some novels today is that they simply state it is there and then do nothing about it. Books from the 80s included the novels of Bret Easton Ellis, from slightly further back we have the nonfiction work of Hunter S. Thompson and the 'radical chic' of Tom Wolfe, further back we get to Hemingway and then to John O'Hara and even further back we get Fitzgerald and others. This book really does take the name from the culture of New York at the time by degrading it in the best ways. The cultures of sexual exploitation and the notion that there will be no punishment for those who have committed wrong against someone else seek to dominate the undertones of the stories. It is brilliant.

I will say that I have read some of his other books such as: Pal Joey, A Rage to Live, BUtterfield 8 and Ten North Frederick. But out of all of those, none of them have surprised me quite like the short stories he has written. One of the greatest short story writers, O'Hara seeks to tear the mask away from the bright lights of New York City and show you the rotting corpse of every hotel room and every restaurant in the whole surrounding area. It is one of those books where you don't read every short story in one go, instead you savour the stories one by one, building up this very intense picture of a city gone so horribly wrong.

All in all, I think that O'Hara's short stories are much better than his novels. They are more introspective in their storylines and even though I do love reading Pal Joey (especially whenever I'm in the mood for the film - and I adore Frank Sinatra's movies, so I'm always in the mood for the film), I think that when it comes to critiquing the values of American life, the ideas held so dear to the era and the way in which the country treats its people, John O'Hara is able to express far more of the secrecy in his short stories than his novels.

This is no longer what is happening in the open, but it deals with what goes on in private spaces between the alleyways and behind the locked doors.