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Hope of Heaven: A Novel of Tenderness and Violence, Cruelty and Love
Hope of Heaven, first published in 1938, is a fast-paced novel by John O'Hara in the “doomed romance” genre. The novel centers on a world-weary Hollywood screenwriter of only limited success in his mid-thirties who is in love with an idealistic young woman in her twenties who is only mildly interested in him. When her father, a private detective, comes to Los Angeles on a case in which the screenwriter has a part, tragedy ensues. John O'Hara (1905-1970) was the author of many novels and short stories and is best known for his first two novels – Appointment in Samarra and Butterfield 8.
108 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1938
28 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
John O'Hara
248 books295 followersAmerican 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&#...
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&#...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
May 16, 2021
I enjoyed this story about Darrow, the author's doppleganger, and his Hollywood adventures. He has a real knack for picking up the American vernacular. The sex is surprisingly explicit which surprised me.
O'Hara's observations tend to be minute with a touch of irony.
"Instinctively I knew that Miss Harris - Joan was her first name - was going to be my problem. She had good conventional manners and was probably a distant cousin of Herbert's. She accepted a cocktail without a word and took a look around, which was all she needed and then settled down. She gave her attention to anyone who was speaking, and in between she would stare at Karen. I was thinking up a plan to snub her when Karen stared back at her, and then Joan smiled and it was a nice smile. After that I liked her. But she didn't help much in conversation." (p. 483 - page number from Library of America anthology).
This is what I really appreciate in his writing more even than the plots themselves. Here is my final example that is even more fun to read:
And yet to me this kid was a sort of celebrity, the way anyone is who is wanted by the law. Sitting there in my room, he was a frightened kid, the same age as one of my brothers, and he was about as unexciting a figure as there was in Los Angeles County. But the moment he left the room he began to be different. Already I was remembering him, not seeing him, and what I remembered was a figure that had passed, like a celebrity who had been pointed out to you just as he passed, so that you don't see his face, only his back. Miller was a tall young man, whose rounded shoulders contributed to the picture of a hunted man. All hunted men have rounded shoulders in your mental pictures of them." (p. 496)
Not as gripping as Appointment in Samarra, nonetheless, this book was a short, delightful read!
O'Hara's observations tend to be minute with a touch of irony.
"Instinctively I knew that Miss Harris - Joan was her first name - was going to be my problem. She had good conventional manners and was probably a distant cousin of Herbert's. She accepted a cocktail without a word and took a look around, which was all she needed and then settled down. She gave her attention to anyone who was speaking, and in between she would stare at Karen. I was thinking up a plan to snub her when Karen stared back at her, and then Joan smiled and it was a nice smile. After that I liked her. But she didn't help much in conversation." (p. 483 - page number from Library of America anthology).
This is what I really appreciate in his writing more even than the plots themselves. Here is my final example that is even more fun to read:
And yet to me this kid was a sort of celebrity, the way anyone is who is wanted by the law. Sitting there in my room, he was a frightened kid, the same age as one of my brothers, and he was about as unexciting a figure as there was in Los Angeles County. But the moment he left the room he began to be different. Already I was remembering him, not seeing him, and what I remembered was a figure that had passed, like a celebrity who had been pointed out to you just as he passed, so that you don't see his face, only his back. Miller was a tall young man, whose rounded shoulders contributed to the picture of a hunted man. All hunted men have rounded shoulders in your mental pictures of them." (p. 496)
Not as gripping as Appointment in Samarra, nonetheless, this book was a short, delightful read!
March 29, 2020
Not So Heavenly
Great title. Great cover. Lots of great reviews. First published in the late 1930's, Hollywood lunches, dates, cocktail parties, and it's all so dull. Could I try something else on the menu?
Great title. Great cover. Lots of great reviews. First published in the late 1930's, Hollywood lunches, dates, cocktail parties, and it's all so dull. Could I try something else on the menu?
July 8, 2020
John O'Hara's, "Hope of Heaven," might very well be the best book I have read about the old Hollywood of the 30's, and quite possibly because it does not concentrate on movie stars, but a novelist, turned screenplay writer, Jim Malloy, and a cast of characters who have nothing to do with the movie business.
After having read it, I can honestly say that I don't even know if this book has a climax and it definitely does not have an ending because too many of the characters are still searching for what they want out of life. Besides being superbly written, this book has an abundance of what I consider critical to any great novel... Well defined, fascinating characters... Right down to the waiters who have only a line or two. They are beyond memorable.
Few, if any books, have this many great characters, especially a relatively short book like "Hope for Heaven." Peggy Henderson, the on and off girlfriend of Jim, is so completely fascinating, and real, that her unpredictability is so charming, horrifying, and funny, that it is maybe one of the truest testaments to female youth that I have ever read (and that includes Gloria in another O'Hara book, Bufferfield 8).
Mr. O'Hara has taken a telescope to the Hollywood of the 30's, and created a great book. A book I could not put down. A book that doesn't deserve 5 stars, but simply labeled a classic.
After having read it, I can honestly say that I don't even know if this book has a climax and it definitely does not have an ending because too many of the characters are still searching for what they want out of life. Besides being superbly written, this book has an abundance of what I consider critical to any great novel... Well defined, fascinating characters... Right down to the waiters who have only a line or two. They are beyond memorable.
Few, if any books, have this many great characters, especially a relatively short book like "Hope for Heaven." Peggy Henderson, the on and off girlfriend of Jim, is so completely fascinating, and real, that her unpredictability is so charming, horrifying, and funny, that it is maybe one of the truest testaments to female youth that I have ever read (and that includes Gloria in another O'Hara book, Bufferfield 8).
Mr. O'Hara has taken a telescope to the Hollywood of the 30's, and created a great book. A book I could not put down. A book that doesn't deserve 5 stars, but simply labeled a classic.
August 7, 2015
If you like short stories, and have a soft spot for Americana (like me, who suffers from an enduring nostalgia for his time spent in the USA, and for whom California has a strong mystique for me although I’ve never been), you’ll like John O’ Hara’s ‘Hope of Heaven and other stories'. The collection starts and finishes with two stories based on a central character James Malloy in different stages of his life - from a famous Hollywood writer caught in a tangle of real-life lies and murder to rival anything on screen, to his younger days as an doctor’s assistant in Pennsylvania in the midst of an epidemic. These are the longest stories and they bookend twenty or so bite-sized slices of American life.
Short stories require a very special skill, which is to make the reader inhabit the world you create even in a page or two. O’Hara is worthy in this regard. The Americans definitely have form and heritage when it comes to short story writing; John Cheever, John Updike, JD Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and (although I haven’t read enough of them yet) Malamud and O Henry. This beauty in simplicity is evident in O’Hara’s writing. He also has a skill for vernacular and a deep understanding of human nature - from the vain, shallow (and often doomed) Hollywood set, to a man mourning his wife’s death, to the life of a show girl.
Some of the highlights for me include In The Morning Sun, a poignant study of the telepathic nature of a mother’s love for her son. Lunch Tuesday is very similar to Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever, where two women awkwardly discover an embarrassing infidelity over an innocent meal. Over The River is perhaps one of his most famous short stories that I also came across in a collection of Great American Short Stories, where a man mistakenly and cruelly comes face-to-face with the reality of his old age.
While not utterly remarkable in the vein of some of the writers mentioned earlier, O’Hara is a nice, light read (especially after Dostoyesky!) that remains profound enough for a serious reader to enjoy. In actual ratings, a 3 ½ star read.
Short stories require a very special skill, which is to make the reader inhabit the world you create even in a page or two. O’Hara is worthy in this regard. The Americans definitely have form and heritage when it comes to short story writing; John Cheever, John Updike, JD Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and (although I haven’t read enough of them yet) Malamud and O Henry. This beauty in simplicity is evident in O’Hara’s writing. He also has a skill for vernacular and a deep understanding of human nature - from the vain, shallow (and often doomed) Hollywood set, to a man mourning his wife’s death, to the life of a show girl.
Some of the highlights for me include In The Morning Sun, a poignant study of the telepathic nature of a mother’s love for her son. Lunch Tuesday is very similar to Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever, where two women awkwardly discover an embarrassing infidelity over an innocent meal. Over The River is perhaps one of his most famous short stories that I also came across in a collection of Great American Short Stories, where a man mistakenly and cruelly comes face-to-face with the reality of his old age.
While not utterly remarkable in the vein of some of the writers mentioned earlier, O’Hara is a nice, light read (especially after Dostoyesky!) that remains profound enough for a serious reader to enjoy. In actual ratings, a 3 ½ star read.
June 1, 2021
I’m an unabashed fan of the writing style of John O’Hara. His “cut to the point” tendency reminds me a bit of the stark style of Ernest Hemingway.
A book should be more than style, though. That was why I was so surprised by the minimalist plot in HOPE OF HEAVEN. The subtitle, “A Novel of Tenderness and Violence, Cruelty and Love,” suggested to me a noir setting with atmosphere aplenty surrounding a mystery, a thriller or a crime novel. It was none of those (though it did have atmosphere aplenty with overtones of noir).
HOPE OF HEAVEN is narrated by Malloy (a character who apparently captured the writer’s own views and attitudes). Malloy is a screenwriter, in and out of jobs at the whim of the motion picture studios. Several characters enter into his life whose interaction will have an unexpected impact. What bothered me, though, was that their desires have little alignment. (I won’t cause a Spoiler by identifying the two who do have intersecting agendas.) In this story, there are many coincidental encounters that lead to one devastating result. However, that’s not the intention. The ill-omened stars align and havoc emerges. But, it is not due to a driving force. One or two things could have casually turned another way and all that would remain would be ”slice-of-life” vignettes.
I did like HOPE OF HEAVEN. O’Hara’s “hard-boiled” style with “no mincing of words” conjures vivid imagery without being vulgar. About two-thirds of the way through, I was waiting for the overall plot to kick in, and it never did so. At the end, I admired the brisk read and the writer’s facility of expression. But, the dark and sinister intent just wasn’t there. I would have loved it if it had appeared.
A book should be more than style, though. That was why I was so surprised by the minimalist plot in HOPE OF HEAVEN. The subtitle, “A Novel of Tenderness and Violence, Cruelty and Love,” suggested to me a noir setting with atmosphere aplenty surrounding a mystery, a thriller or a crime novel. It was none of those (though it did have atmosphere aplenty with overtones of noir).
HOPE OF HEAVEN is narrated by Malloy (a character who apparently captured the writer’s own views and attitudes). Malloy is a screenwriter, in and out of jobs at the whim of the motion picture studios. Several characters enter into his life whose interaction will have an unexpected impact. What bothered me, though, was that their desires have little alignment. (I won’t cause a Spoiler by identifying the two who do have intersecting agendas.) In this story, there are many coincidental encounters that lead to one devastating result. However, that’s not the intention. The ill-omened stars align and havoc emerges. But, it is not due to a driving force. One or two things could have casually turned another way and all that would remain would be ”slice-of-life” vignettes.
I did like HOPE OF HEAVEN. O’Hara’s “hard-boiled” style with “no mincing of words” conjures vivid imagery without being vulgar. About two-thirds of the way through, I was waiting for the overall plot to kick in, and it never did so. At the end, I admired the brisk read and the writer’s facility of expression. But, the dark and sinister intent just wasn’t there. I would have loved it if it had appeared.
June 18, 2022
A marvelously compact O'Hara novella, oozing with atmosphere / terrific characters and dripping with trademark O'Hara dialogue.
This thing simply flies.
Though the author has written a fair amount of short (and long short) stories, it was less common for him to use the novella form. Using it was a wise choice here. Had it been a short story (or even a long short story), there wouldn't have been room for all of the rich detail. Had it gone the length of a novel, its punch may have been diminished.
A completely satisfying work - compelling, sometimes suspenseful, at one point deliciously erotic, and often hilarious. In short, a real treat for O'Hara fans.
This thing simply flies.
Though the author has written a fair amount of short (and long short) stories, it was less common for him to use the novella form. Using it was a wise choice here. Had it been a short story (or even a long short story), there wouldn't have been room for all of the rich detail. Had it gone the length of a novel, its punch may have been diminished.
A completely satisfying work - compelling, sometimes suspenseful, at one point deliciously erotic, and often hilarious. In short, a real treat for O'Hara fans.
September 3, 2019
John O’Hara, succinctly:
Money will not bring you happiness.
Work will not bring you happiness.
Love will not bring you happiness.
Happiness is an illusion.
If you subscribe to these precepts, O’Hara is your author. Have a blast.
Money will not bring you happiness.
Work will not bring you happiness.
Love will not bring you happiness.
Happiness is an illusion.
If you subscribe to these precepts, O’Hara is your author. Have a blast.
July 6, 2008
O'Hara has a quite readable style - Fitzgerald/Hemingway-esque. Unfortunately, one feels that his ideas ran out after much hype in his own mind and paragraphs, because the plot is ridiculously thin. The love story goes absolutely nowhere and there are no real stakes or dangers for the reader or main character. A character is introduced quite early and then disappears from the plot and then leaves it entirely, and prematurely. The novel trips along in fits and spurts, finally sprawling itself, like the main character, drunkenly, embarrassingly, across the last few chapters. Still, I will give his first novel, the classic "Appointment in Samarra," or the more famous "BUtterfield 8," a try, since the style is worth chasing; perhaps his plots are better elsewhere.
Anyway, I'm listening to Mary Poppins and it's wonderfully catchy music and lyrics are calling me.
Anyway, I'm listening to Mary Poppins and it's wonderfully catchy music and lyrics are calling me.
Read
August 1, 2019John O'Hara, formerly very popular, now little read, touted by some critics (notably B. R. Myers) as someone worth looking into, wrote some good, atmospheric short stories (I especially like "Of Thee I Sing, Baby") but this, his Hollywood novel, didn't really make me want to read more of him. Includes a character based on Nathanael West (who hated this novel) which does give it some historical interest, I suppose. O'Hara relied very heavily on dialogue, among 20C. Anglophone writers perhaps only Henry Green, in his last two novels, NOTHING and DOTING, put so much emphasis on dialogue and Green was, to put it mildly, a more skillful writer than O'Hara.
November 6, 2018
"...and somehow I resented you. I begin to realize that I have been resenting all men."
June 10, 2021
Big fan of John O'Hara, this was short and pretty entertaining. I love these stories from this era bc everyone just has money from doing nothing and is chillen, the dream.
October 30, 2015
I read this very short little novella on my Kindle in one day, and while it was entertaining and held my interest, it was not what I've come to expect from John O'Hara. Hope of Heaven, first published in 1938, is written in the style of edgy LA-noir pulp fiction. Being an Angeleno myself, I quite enjoyed O'Hara's efforts to craft a story out here in Hollywood in its heyday in the 20s and 30s in Los Angeles. A fun little read, but if you're looking for more substantive hard-boiled fiction I suggest Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, or even James Ellroy. O'Hara's Hope of Heaven gets 3 stars of 5 from me.
April 5, 2014
Just reread the three - Samarra, Butterfield 8 and this novel. I liked this one the best though it is less well known than the first two. Wonderfully world-weary, cynical story peopled with grifters, crooks, party girls, mobsters and Hollywood wannabes. Startlingly candid about sex, drugs, booze and organized crime - much racier than you might imagine for the 1930s.
July 27, 2020
This is a story that could be written for 2020 (content), but in a language from 1930s (it is from that time). Often, the last half of paragraphs brings a surprise that was hidden in the first half. Like all novel of this kind, there is a global counterpart, 99 percent if the novel leads to a logical conclusion, but the last 1 percent gives a surprising ending, that is more logical than the obvious one. By accident I read the last word in the novel, so now, at page 328, I think I know the ending.
Later: I did not. And there were to many treads that went nowhere.
The story is fun to read, but in a way, it is also a serious description of a life that some live. I do not know the statistics. The sentences are often amusing and often worth contemplating by themselves.
Quotations.
"the thing that kept depressing me.., for three or four days i would not be able to see a NewYork paper that I had not already read in New York". The novel is from 1938.
“Hysterical colored women saying anything in a crisis”. p. 377. The novel is really from 1938.
Later: I did not. And there were to many treads that went nowhere.
The story is fun to read, but in a way, it is also a serious description of a life that some live. I do not know the statistics. The sentences are often amusing and often worth contemplating by themselves.
Quotations.
"the thing that kept depressing me.., for three or four days i would not be able to see a NewYork paper that I had not already read in New York". The novel is from 1938.
“Hysterical colored women saying anything in a crisis”. p. 377. The novel is really from 1938.
October 1, 2018
Hope of Heaven?
Are you kidding me?
In what universe?
This is like a bad rated "R" film.
That's it.
There is nothing stellar or mind-altering or original about the story.
Booo. Boring.
My husband asked me if I had "meant" to throw the book in the trash.
YOU BET I DID!
I mean, if the prose was beautiful, I might give O'Hara a break, but...nope.
Are you kidding me?
In what universe?
This is like a bad rated "R" film.
That's it.
There is nothing stellar or mind-altering or original about the story.
Booo. Boring.
My husband asked me if I had "meant" to throw the book in the trash.
YOU BET I DID!
I mean, if the prose was beautiful, I might give O'Hara a break, but...nope.
July 5, 2021
A nice read that feels more like a long short story than a novel but the length allows some immersion into Los Angeles of the 1930’s, which is a large part of the appeal. I would love to see it as a movie.
The characters and dialogue seem all too real and they act the way real people act and not the way we want them to. No one is completely admirable, but that’s life, isn’t it?
The characters and dialogue seem all too real and they act the way real people act and not the way we want them to. No one is completely admirable, but that’s life, isn’t it?
February 20, 2019
When it comes to older books I often find I am more excited about them than many other readers. So be it. I like older books which give the reader a look at life of the times as well as the author's perspective of it. So it was with this one.
The key character in both short stories is Malloy. In the first he is in love with Peggy and she in love with him. They talk of marriage but nothing goes as planned. Her father shows up. Her brother is living with her and he is shot by the father in confusing circumstances. Peggy decides against marriage because Malloy reminds her too much of her father and her brother. The tale winds out from that point.
In the second story we see a much younger Malloy when in younger days he was a doctor’s assistant in Pennsylvania during an epidemic. I didn't like this one as much as the first but enjoy the writer's style and plan to read more of his work. BUtterfield 8 is supposed to be very good according to the few reviews I skimmed.
The key character in both short stories is Malloy. In the first he is in love with Peggy and she in love with him. They talk of marriage but nothing goes as planned. Her father shows up. Her brother is living with her and he is shot by the father in confusing circumstances. Peggy decides against marriage because Malloy reminds her too much of her father and her brother. The tale winds out from that point.
In the second story we see a much younger Malloy when in younger days he was a doctor’s assistant in Pennsylvania during an epidemic. I didn't like this one as much as the first but enjoy the writer's style and plan to read more of his work. BUtterfield 8 is supposed to be very good according to the few reviews I skimmed.
July 6, 2024
O’Hara’s canny dialogue shares space with his sardonic running commentary as narrative. The noirish climax didn’t ring true. Slight compared even with some of the short stories.
You love or hate the guy and I’m a lover.
You love or hate the guy and I’m a lover.
Read
December 3, 2019Enjoyed the retro Hollywood feel
February 28, 2020
light entertainment.
January 23, 2024
A gem of a novella. Weighing is at just over 100 pages, John O'Hara recreates the golden world of Hollywood. Not the glamour, but a more mundane, truer picture with characters that will fascinate.
December 9, 2025
Hemingway by way of Robert Penn Warren by way of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, without the greatest strengths of any of those, but with its own witty momentum. A quick and curious read.
December 29, 2021
This is a short entertaining novella. If you are used to John O'Hara, then you will recognize the writing style in its typical fluidity and turns of phrase. This one has a just a touch of hard boiled in it, though it is not directly a detective story, but it does have a mystery that really drives the plot forward. The characters are not generally deep, but they do have strong characterization.
The basic outline is that the narrator is a Hollywood writer who is contacted by an acquaintance from his hometown in Pennsylvania. The acquaintance may have come into some money inappropriately and is looking for help from the main character. This is made complicated by the main character being maybe in love with a woman who's father has newly arrived in town who maybe a detective searching for the same man.
I would say that one of the biggest issues with I had with the novella is that it ends fairly abruptly. While plot lines do come to a close, you would be hard pressed to argue that it feels like earned ending. Instead it comes across more like the author decided that it needed to end at the point that he decided without really being clear about how you arrived. There's an element of Greek tragedy in this resolution as a form plot device, which served O'Hara famously well in his cipher of a story Appointment in Samarra, but Samarra really saw the protagonist be the engine of his steady path of destruction. In Hope of Heaven, the narrator is just a bystander unable to make much sense of the events that have unfolded.
The basic outline is that the narrator is a Hollywood writer who is contacted by an acquaintance from his hometown in Pennsylvania. The acquaintance may have come into some money inappropriately and is looking for help from the main character. This is made complicated by the main character being maybe in love with a woman who's father has newly arrived in town who maybe a detective searching for the same man.
I would say that one of the biggest issues with I had with the novella is that it ends fairly abruptly. While plot lines do come to a close, you would be hard pressed to argue that it feels like earned ending. Instead it comes across more like the author decided that it needed to end at the point that he decided without really being clear about how you arrived. There's an element of Greek tragedy in this resolution as a form plot device, which served O'Hara famously well in his cipher of a story Appointment in Samarra, but Samarra really saw the protagonist be the engine of his steady path of destruction. In Hope of Heaven, the narrator is just a bystander unable to make much sense of the events that have unfolded.
December 13, 2023
Wonderful dialogue, as typical with O'Hara. I read O'Hara thought this was a better novel than APPOINTMENT WITH SAMARRA or BUTTERFIELD 8, but the critics mostly thought it inferior. And I'd have to agree. To be fair: plot is not something that takes up a lot of space in O'Hara, at least the pre-RAGE TO LIVE stuff--i.e. it's a lot people drinking, talking about & having sex (not explicit, but transgressive for the time in mainstream fiction), and witty hardboiled/screwball comedy type dialogue (and the result is better than it might sound to an O'Hara newbie). But even in the novels, like BUTTERFIELD, that might seem to meander or where nothing's happening, there's a definite shape & direction, if only apparent in retrospect. This one, by contrast, just wanders. Great setup, some wonderful characters (Lucky/Red is a PAL JOEY type, Peggy is sharply and imaginatively drawn), but the Don Miller plot line & Peggy's estranged father, feel not quite thought out. I didn't mind the sudden climax, but the satire, comedy, and dark fatality typical of his work didn't work quite here. The Hollywood writer narrator is a not-quite realized version of Joe (?) from SUNSET BOULEVARD. The local 1930s LA setting & detail were wonderful. Worth reading, then, but for O'Hara completists.
September 26, 2007
Published in 1938. A Hollywood screenwriter, Malloy, has a girl he's been seeing off and on, Peggy. They think they're in love and maybe they'll get married. Her father who abandoned her and her brother when they were kids, suddenly appears on the scene. Turns out he's a private dick on a case that Malloy is mildly involved in. Then the father hits on a girl his son likes, unbeknownst to him. He mauls her in fact, against her will. She tells the son. He confronts his father, who shoots him, he claims accidentally. Peggy decides not to marry Malloy because he'll remind her too much of what happened with her father and brother. That's the bare plot, more or less, but how to say how good it is? I like his style of writing so much. It's kind of hard-boiled. He pulls no punches. There are gangsters, whores. There is much drinking and sex. But it's also the psychological portraits of the characters, the excellent dialogue, the fast pace and the intelligence of it. He uses big words, makes references. I think it was written before the dumbing down began. He expects the reader to be smart enough to keep up with him. I gotta like that.
February 21, 2012
O'Hara was hugely popular in his time, and has been named a precursor to Updike. This early in his career novella is set in Hollywood and snaps along at a brisk pace. Loads of contemporary references, many of them lost on current readers. Perhaps the biggest point is we have female characters here who casually sleep around and lose their virginity in high school - in 1938. Yep, that is our mothers and grandmothers doing that! Main character's girlfriend even offers to have her best friend sleep w/ him because she knows he finds her incredibly hot - this in 1938 I tell you!
I had a graduate seminar in Tough Guy Literature at the U of IA back in the mid '70's w/ David Morrell, and he had us read this My first time rereading it since. It is fun and quick, and I'll probably pick up a couple other O'Hara novels (but not all - he wrote *a lot*!). Points for Hollywood setting in the '30's, which I love.
I had a graduate seminar in Tough Guy Literature at the U of IA back in the mid '70's w/ David Morrell, and he had us read this My first time rereading it since. It is fun and quick, and I'll probably pick up a couple other O'Hara novels (but not all - he wrote *a lot*!). Points for Hollywood setting in the '30's, which I love.
April 8, 2014
This isn't even close to as good as Butterfield or Samarra. I'm guessing that O'Hara owed his publisher a book and it was getting close to deadline and he pounded out a quick story based on some B movie he watched. I generally don't like stories about Hollywood. I will say this though, like all of the O'Hara stories I've read - the characters are very accessible. It seems like you walk into the middle of their lives and feel like you've known them forever. I think it's the way he immediately puts you in the middle of their sarcastic ribbing of one another that makes you feel like you're an insider immediately.
February 7, 2015
I'm not going to give up on John O'Hara yet, he has a definite knack for dialogue and I loved the LA setting in Hope Of Heaven. His characterizations both female and male are strong. Less easily digested is the casual sexism and racism of the day. It's not overly abundant in this novel but I am constantly amazed at references to hitting or slapping women in novels of the 30's, 40's and 50's. It seems quite common among these male novelists of the day and yes this novel was written in 1938. As a story it doesn't really hang together all that well, perhaps too many whisky sours were consumed in it's path to finished product.
November 25, 2017
A novel written in 1938 that puts you right in the story of Hollywood, private investigators (dicks), sex, money, and love. It is kind of edgy for the late 30's but also eloquently written. Smart sex scenes that only seem dirty after you realize what he is saying. Funny in places, sad in others - this is a great beach read. Pulp fiction noir - and masterfully so. Highly recommended.
December 23, 2023
Out of the O’Hara books I’ve read so far, not one of them ends well for the main characters, but this one was definitely a downer comparatively. More uninterrupted plot in this one for a shorter read, but still captures the world of the West Coast Noir. These are not characters that you will come to care about, but honest and believe able.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews