BUtterfield 8 (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback)

by John O'Hara (Author), Fran Lebowitz (Introduction) "ON THIS SUNDAY morning in May, this girl who later was to be the cause of a sensation in New York, awoke much too early..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, City of Essex, Grand Central (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
?A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well.? ?Ernest Hemingway -- Review

Review
“A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well.” —Ernest Hemingway

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812966988
• ISBN-13: 978-0812966985
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #308,108 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and Memorable...a 4.6 on a scale of 1 to 5, May 22, 2003

By	crazyforgems (Wellesley, MA United States) - See all my reviews

I have enjoyed O'Hara in the past and I had always wanted to read this book. When I saw that Fran Leibowitz wrote the introduction, I thought "it's time."
O'Hara sets the book in the early 1930's in New York City. He focuses his sharp powers of observation on the "speakeasy" class of New York: those individuals with still enough wealth to spend time in illegal bars drinking their worries away. At first, you think "ah, these are the beautiful people." Of course, soon you realize that these individuals are anything but beautiful.
The heroine, or anti-heroine, Gloria, is a beautiful, young woman of loose morals and some inherited wealth. She is smart-we're told she could have gone to Smith-and underneath everything, kind. But sexual abuse early on triggered a rampant promiscuity.
O'Hara specializes in delineating the subtle class differences-the Catholics who went to Yale as opposed to the Wasps-that existed at this time. He structures class systems in his novels as rigidly as any Brahmin.
I would recommend this book for individuals who enjoy contemporary fiction, particularly books set in New York that depict wealthy, beautiful people. (If you like Fitzgerald, you'll like this book.) Both men and women can enjoy this book-as Fran Leibowitz says in her introduction, "it's a young man's book" in many ways.
I would not recommend this book for individuals who dislike "dated" fiction (though this book is surprising fresh in many ways) or books that verge on melodrama.
One note about the Leibowitz's introduction: I found it excellent. She has some acute observations-sex is an animal desire, the perception of it human and changing according to mores in vogue-that have stayed with me.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A world of its own, May 1, 2004

By	Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

O'Hara, it has been said, writes like you always wish Fitzgerald had actually written. He describes much the same privileged world, but without the chocolate-box sentimentality. His characters are often moral monsters--to themselves as well as others--but they do seem real, as does the New York world of speakeasies and glamorous apartments in 1931 he describes here. His central character, Gloria Wandrous, a beautiful cosmopolitan girl living on her wits and her sex appeal, seems a clear forerunner of Sally Bowles and Holly Golightly, except she is much less madcap and much more tragic. The central action is Gloria's swiping an expensive fur coat from the closets of a married wealthy new Yorker who brought her to his apartment and tore her dress off in order to date-rape her; we are then introduced to a series of characters who will all come together through the chain of events set off by Gloria's taking of the coat. This is a hard book to put down. Though the world it describes is incredibly sordid, it feels like a place you could easily visit and recognize.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real characters living in a real world , June 19, 2005

By	Alysson Oliveira "Alysson Oliveira" (Sao Paulo-- Brazil) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Those who have found John O'Hara through "Appointment in Samarra" and simply felt in love with his work -- just like me -- won't be disappointed with his "BUtterfield 8". This time around, this magnificent writer touches the same issues of this debut but from another focus. And this time the protagonist is a girl, Gloria Wandrous.

"BUtterfield 8" was inspired by a real incident. The body of a beautiful and young woman was found in a Long Island beach. Nobody ever knew whether this was an accident, a murder or a suicide. O'Hara ignites from this news to tell this story of a girl who leads an erratic life filled with booze, love and fun. Gloria is this young woman. The writer unveils her existence from the beginning.

In the first paragraphs we meet Gloria in the apartment of a `strange' men -- strange meaning she doesn't know a lot of him. She is alone there and has time to walk around and examine his house. While she does it, O'Hara smartly introduces to his reader not only Gloria but also the apartment's owner, Liggett, is discovered. As the text moves, we can learn about the couple and what had happened that led them to this morning. As Gloria leaves his apartment, she takes something with her. This item will be in the center of the action until the end of the novel.

In the next few paragraphs, O'Hara introduces a couple of characters that however not important to the central narrative, they make an appealing and large mural of the middle upper class in New York City in the 30s. His descriptions are full of life and energy. The form one character run into each other is casual and smart.

As the narrative moves forward, we learn more about Gloria and her friends. But we also discover about Liggett and his family. Nevertheless, she is the main character and the one who has more background. The use of flashbacks is quite useful to show what lead Gloria to become what she is. At the same time, O'Hara doesn't `psychologize' his character. He doesn't try to find psychotic explanations to who she is. Neither social reason is brought up. Gloria is what she is -- period.

This device enhances the narrative, and brings the character closer to the reader. Gloria and her friends -- and lovers, as well -- are regular human beings, leading a complex existence, just like everyone else. This is exactly what O'Hara did in his "Appointment in Samarra", bring to real existence people that in the hand of lesser talented writers would like just like book characters.

Their dramas, fears, anxieties and joys are just like everybody else's. The fact that they have a `different' life is just a detail. O'Hara's creation moves in a real world, what he does is to show them to us. Judging these people or not is up to any reader -- not to the writer.