The Farmers Hotel

by John O'Hara

The new novel by the author of A Rage to Live is a surprising departure in style and mood and purpose. John O'Hara now turns to a parable of our times, told with disarming simplicity but with overtones that give it accumulating dramatic tension. The Farmers Hotel is a story that projects itself far beyond the simple frame in which it is concentrated and contains implications as wide as the reader's own imagination. The location is the Pennsylvania country made familiar by A Rage to Live and Appointment in Samarra and the time our own.

Genres: Fiction

153 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

American writer John Henry O'Hara contributed short stories to the New Yorker and wrote novels, such as BUtterfield 8 (1935) and Ten North Frederick (1955).

Best-selling works of John Henry O'Hara include Appointment in Samarra . People particularly knew him for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue. O'Hara, a keen observer of social status and class differences, wrote frequently about the socially ambitious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O&#...

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected snow storm wreaks havoc on the lives of some travelers, stranding them at the newly opened Farmer's Hotel in tiny Rockbottom, Pennsylvania.

Proprietor Ira Studebaker and his assistant Charles play host to a wealthy couple who stop to ask for directions (and more than a few drinks). Turns out, the woman is married, but not to her traveling companion, and she is desperate to get home before her husband figures out what's going on. Soon they are joined by entertainers Jerry Mayo and the Pickwick Sisters on their way to play some dive in Reading. Everyone is getting along swimmingly, sharing stories (and more drinks) when trouble arrives in the person of Joe Rogg, a gruff trucker with little patience and even fewer manners.

The book has the feel of a three-act play about it. All the action occurs in just a few rooms, and the dialogue has an old-fashioned "theatrical" feel to it:

"Well, it's very becoming, on you. But you could wear an old empty cement bag and you'd do things for it," he said. "God was good to you."
"Thank you, Mr. Mayo," she said.
"Ahhh, she remembered the name," he said.
"I once owned a horse from the County Mayo," she said.
"Well, I have been compared to a horse, one end of it," he said.

An evening spent at the Farmer's Hotel...music is played, secrets are disclosed, words are exchanged. Just one evening out of a lifetime. Yet, most of the participants will long remember their brief stay there.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd little book. It's old-- 1951--and although it is a novel, it reads and feels like a play. it reminded me of "Bus Stop." Snowy evening, assorted interesting folks arrive one by one in a hotel lobby, each with a different back story and reason for happening to be there. I enjoyed how it evoked small-town rural village life in the years after "the first War." It felt kind of like a dark Andy Griffith Show episode.

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short novella, John O'Hara's The Farmers Hotel, first published in 1951, reads like a three-act play that takes place over several hours in rural wintry eastern Pennsylvania. The story revolves around a group of people all brought together by a blizzard to a newly renovated and reopened hotel. It is a dialog-driven plot involving some truly interesting characters. I have really come to admire O'Hara's ability to put his readers into a relatively ordinary scene, and then through the ensuing conversations we come to better know and understand each of the characters, warts and all. While the novella's denouement may have been somewhat predictable, it didn't detract at all from this being an enjoyable and engaging read. The Farmers Hotel gets a solid 3.5 stars of 5 from me.

[William Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella that reads like a play and then became a play and a motion picture. There’s not much to it, a group of strangers huddled in a small “heritage hotel” against a snowstorm, a representative swath of Americans. They interact, are friendly with one another, but never far from violence against one another. (Thus, America). The novella ends with an act of silly but believable murderous off stage violence. The character of Charles, the African American man of all work, tries to be respectful but in hindsight is stereotypical.

I’m curious to see the movie.

If you like OHara and have a few hours to spare, it’s enjoyable.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a John O’Hara fan. I think it’s due to his stories tending to be set in the same local – Pennsylvania. His characters seem “real,” and are often complicated. This one is a little more like a soap opera, and as one reviewer said, it reminded them of “Bus Stop.” What didn’t work for me was the surprise tradgedy at the end, which was very similar to his other works, “Appointment at Sumarra” and “Butterfield 8.” While shocking it just made me feel “been there, done that.”

[Curtis Harrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like the novelization of a play, but it's quick and manages to hit a lot of the familiar points of an O'Hara story. There's a two page section where all of the patrons of the Hotel are asking Charlie to play different songs on his trombone. Nothing significant really happens but it's weirdly engrossing to read.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adore this novel about a motley group of travelers and locals who hole up at a Pennsylvania roadside inn during a snowstorm.

[Patrick O'Rourke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could have been a screenplay turned into a long - short story. Not surprising, considered that it is dedicated to Philip Barry. Would have worked better as part of a collection, but still very good.

[Brenda Anweiler · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fixed location book. The entire story takes place in one hotel , in one evening. It was very slow and quite boring until the last two pages. Hmm...

[Jeff Rhine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, a somewhat twist of an ending, and definitely dated to the time- I think it in the fifties or sixties. Never the less I enjoyed it.

[Benjy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of O'Hara, there's less of a plot than a general direction everyone heads in until enough people die or are ruined and the book ends.

Based on the plot descriptions, I was expecting something a little more tightly wound than the other O'Hara I've read. Double crosses. Chekhovian gunplay. Basically Key Largo in a blizzard. That's not this book.

Which isn't to say that there isn't tension and suspense, only that what's fun here is what's fun in almost all O'Hara, namely the self-contained character sketches, the layered dialogue (snappy but almost more contraption than conversation), the extensive lists cataloguing bygone Americana, the withering asides.

If that's what you've come for, this is a breezy and fun one devoid of the capital-I importance that O'Hara could choke on in his Nobel thirst. The result is that it's not a very significant entry in the oeuvre but it has its share of memorable sequences and linguistic daring-do.

As of now, it's still long out-of-print. As far as I know, the only scheduled book in the Penguin reissue series is Pal Joey. This one's not likely to pop up anytime soon.

Assembly or the Sermons & Soda Water trilogy would be nice to see back in circulation though it's hard to think either would make the cut over A Rage to Live or From the Terrace. Any of those are worth reading before Farmers Hotel but if you find a disintegrating Bantam paperback for sale at its original cover price, snag it.

[Fons · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmm, I liked the onset and the slowness with which the cogs started to fit together and started turning. But as soon as the novel finally picks up some speed (something that could have been stretched for pages without letting the tension fall as O'Hara's scene setting skills are legendary), it spins off the road and crashes into a tree. Slightly disappointing, but reading an actual copy from '51 gave this book an extra star.

Great start, bad finish, lovely old book smell. Pick it up if you like early pre-war american pulp (yeah, I know that is pretty specific) or if you get your hands on a cheap old copy, 3 stars.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1951, this was an entertaining, psychological tale about a variety of characters who get caught at a rural hotel in a blizzard. They are two wealthy (think fox-hunting) types, who are not married; a country doctor; a negro employee (in the parlance of the time); a Pennsylvania Dutch cook; a gambling truckdriver; two strippers and their manager/piano player. They all fight a little and party a little. The truck driver seems a bit sinister and eventually tragedy strikes. Good, quick read.

[Daniel Severin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talking about The Big Laugh, O'Hara commented that he started some works as short stories but kept writing until they could be ended, or something to that effect. This description seems to fit here. I think this is an underrated novella that deserves to be read, as it accurately captures a scene and a slice of the society of the day.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had very high expectations, so I was a bit let down. It felt very much like a play and I am considering making it into a film for the film festival. I imagined it taking place in the Ontelaunee Hotel or actually more like the Virginville Hotel. It was still a fun, quick read!

[Carrie Lynn Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite daring. I love this little book. John O'Hara's portraits of everyday people are perfection.