Finished: Appointment in Samarra (O'Hara). I really, really liked this book! I think it definitely belongs on the Top 100 list, where it is. Now, I have to let it settle a bit and figure out if it belongs on my "favorites" list. I can't even exactly explain why I like it so much, but I just do...it moves along fast; it has lots of dialogue between the characters; it gives just enough character background, for those you love and you don't love; it's very well written; and it's just a simple book about a slice of life in America in 1930! The main characters, Julian and Caroline English are a young married couple, about 30 years old. They have both been raised in the "rich" part of their little Pennsylvania town called Gibbsville. Married four years, we are introduced to them in the midst of a party at the "club" with all their friends of equal socio-economic status on Christmas Eve. Julian is the owner of the Cadillac dealership in town. He's handsome and privileged and totally in love with his wife. However...it is clear that he's on his way to becoming an alcoholic, if he's not already one. After a few drinks, he commits an act that leads to a spiraling of unfortunate events that leads to his committing suicide two days later. :-( While he's sitting in the club listening to one of his friends, Harry Reilly, tell one of his notoriously boisterous, funny, and repetitive stories, Julian gets very annoyed at it and throws his drink in Harry's face. The problem is....Harry had recently loaned Julian $20,000 for his company... AND ...though no one really likes Harry, too many people owe him money for one thing or another, so everyone is aghast (even if fakely) at Julian. Caroline, a pretty, lovely girl who everyone adores, begs her husband to apologize to Harry the next day and set things right. She also begs Julian not to get drunk that day. Julian attempts to see Harry, but Harry won't see him. Julian proceeds to drink that day and ruin things further when he gets mad a Caroline for refusing to meet him out in the car for a quickie when they go to another party at the club that night. He proceeds to get drunk and flirt with the mistress of the local mobster, Ed Charney, another person that no one in town wants to anger. When Julian and the mistress sneak out to the car, everyone sees what they're doing, including poor Caroline. Julian is too drunk to actually have sex with the woman, but the humiliating damage is done. Caroline goes home to her mother and has a really nice mother/daughter talk. The next morning she is all set to leave to go home and have their own party which is scheduled for that evening. Julian is waiting for her on the street in his own car, and rather than apologizing, he just digs things deeper by being sarcastic and argumentative. He even tells her how he just got into another fight at the club with one of his best friends, Froggy, the war vet who lost an arm in the war. Julian is very upset because Froggy lambasted him for his behavior, and in a blow to Julian's self-esteem, ended up telling Julian that he's never liked him. Julian is in almost more despair about this than his fight with Caroline, since he considered Froggy one of his best friends. He wonders if none of his friends really like him. As he walks away from Caroline after his snarkiness, Caroline tells him to cancel the party...that this is it for her. She's going to stay at her mothers. Their marriage is over. Julian goes home and drinks himself into a stupor, goes out to the garage, starts his Cadillac, and kills himself from carbon monoxide poisoning. It's very drastic and sad. One of the reasons that this book is so good is that I don't ever NOT like Julian. Even with all his antics, he's somehow sympathetic, and I'm not one to have sympathy for an alcoholic womanizer. I don't know if womanizer is the right word since he's never cheated on Caroline and adores her. He just seems to make that first bad decision and things spiral out of control. Anyway, along the way, during this fast-paced story, we meet other characters, like Lute & Irma Fliegler. Lute works for Julian at the dealership and is in the "working-man" class. He and Irma have been married ten years, have three kids, and have the best relationship in the book. Lots of good characters!

At the beginning of the book, in the epigraph, you get a definite foreshadowing of things to come (not to mention the origin of the title of the book) when the author includes the famous retelling of a story by fellow author M. Somerset Maugham. I love it so much that I think I'll include it here:

A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling and tells him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman, whom he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, a distance of about 75 miles, where he believes Death will not find him. The merchant then goes to the marketplace and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threatening gesture, 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."

From that point on out, I was hooked. Anyway, it's just a good book that I'm still savoring, so I think that's it for now. :-)