Appointment in Samarra

American writer John O’Hara’s novel Appointment in Samarra (1934) tells the story of the last days of the life of a wealthy car salesman Julian English as he is cast out of polite society and descends into a self-destructive spiral. The title refers to a retelling of an old Mesopotamian tale by British author W. Somerset Maugham, in which a man is faced with the inevitability of his upcoming death.

The book opens on Christmas Eve from the perspective of one of Julian’s employees, Lute Flieger, and his wife, Irma. Irma is thinking that she does not envy Julian’s wife, Caroline, and their constant fights. Later, the story moves to the Lantenego Country Club, where Gibbsville’s high society – all of who live on Lantnenego Street – are having a party.

At the party, Julian gets drunk and grows resentful of Harry Reilly, an Irish Catholic socialite who is attracting attention with his stories and charm. Julian fantasizes about throwing a drink in his face and later does so, under the mistaken assumption that his own standing in society will protect him.



Waking up hungover the next morning and with only a fuzzy recollection of the previous night’s events, his wife, Caroline reprimands him, telling him the whole town is talking about what he did. She reminds him that Harry is rich and popular and that his rash behavior will be bad for business.

Julian accuses Caroline of having feelings for Harry, which she denies. She also reminds Julian of the abusive language he used against her the previous night when they were on their way home. Julian does not seem very remorseful about his behavior, but he promises Caroline that he won’t get drunk at the Christmas party that evening.

The narrative switches to Al Grecco, who works for a local bootlegger and gangster Ed Charney. Ed asks Al to keep an eye on his mistress, Helene, at the Stage Coach, a club frequented by Gibbsville’s second-tier society. Ed wants Al to make sure Helene does not sleep with another man that night.



Julian and Caroline have dinner with Julian’s parents, and he is happy to see that his father has not heard of the incident. Julian’s father expresses concerns that Julian has inherited immoral characteristics from his grandfather and that he is headed in the same direction of suicide and disgrace.

They leave and Caroline convinces Julian to stop by Harry’s to apologize. Harry had lent Julian a large sum of money to rescue his car dealership in the past and he has been generous with his money multiple times. When they arrive, Harry refuses to see Julian; Caroline is concerned about what this means for their social standing. Julian is worried about a potential flirtation between his wife and Harry.

When they arrive at the party, he notices that people are avoiding him, seeming to take pleasure in his disgrace. He learns that they believe his behavior towards Harry was motivated by religious intolerance. He breaks his promise and gets drunk, trying to convince Caroline to go fool around with him in the car. She refuses due to his drunkenness, and he continues to drink heavily in frustration.



Everyone then heads to the Stage Coach, where they run into Lute, Al, Ed, and Helene. Julian tries to seduce his wife again but she continues to reject him, so he goes to drink with Al and Helene. He knows them a bit because he buys his liquor from Ed, and they are both friendly to him. He soon becomes obsessed with Helene, who is flirty and wearing a revealing dress, and takes her to the dance floor.

They dance under the judgmental eyes of all of Gibbsville society and then retire to Julian’s car where it is implied they have sex. When Helene returns to the party looking visibly disheveled, Caroline, Al, and a few others have to go fetch a passed out, drunk Julian from the car. Al and Caroline are particularly distraught, the former because he was meant to be watching Helene and the latter because her husband has publicly humiliated her.

The next day, Julian goes to work at the dealership in order to escape Caroline and soon realizes that his business is failing again. Lute chastises him for his behavior but tells him things will work out. Julian contemplates suicide with a gun he keeps in his office but is distracted by a phone call from Caroline. She simply tells him off for being rude to their servant that morning.



He goes to lunch and meets Froggy Odgen, a close friend of his and Caroline’s cousin. Froggy expresses disgust at his behavior and says he never actually liked him, challenging him to a fight. Julian initially refuses because Froggy is missing an arm he lost in World War I, but eventually gets into a general fistfight when other members of the club get involved. He runs away to meet Caroline at her mother’s home.

Meanwhile, Caroline is trying to express to her mother how unhappy she is in her marriage and that she would like a divorce, but her mother brushes this off. Caroline runs into Julian on her way out and he tells her about the fight. He asks her to run away with him but she refuses, horrified at his behavior. She threatens to leave him if he goes to have a drink and cancels a party they were meant to host that night, saying she will not be coming home.

Julian returns home and gets drunk again. A woman who writes the society pages in the newspaper stops by and asks him about the guest list for the evening and he tries to seduce her. She kisses him but leaves before anything else happens. He drinks some more, listens to some music, and heads to the garage. He locks himself in his car and turns on the engine. In his last moments, he thinks of a girl called Mary that he had loved, but couldn’t marry because she was poor.



Caroline is initially distraught at her husband’s death but soon accepts that it was time for him to die. Lute Flieger takes up the car dealership in Julian’s place.

Appointment in Samarra was controversial when it was released due to O’Hara’s allusions to sex throughout the book. While the content of the book is mild by today’s standards, the implications of sexual encounters and descriptions of female bodies were scandalous for the time. His second book, BUtterfield 8, was even more notorious and was even banned in some countries for decades.