Skipping Christmas: a novel

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 31, 2001 | by Rex Roberts

Grinches rejoice: John O'Hara published Appointment in Samarra (Modern Library, $13.50, 291 pp) in 1934, a dreary year smack in the middle of the Depression. The novel takes place during Christmastime, although the story recounts the self-destruction of Julian English, a man who seems to have it all. It may be O'Hara's best book -- it made the notorious 100 Best Novels list worked up just prior to the millennium -- perfect for the Scrooges on your list.

And for the cosmopolites: Remember Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man, the witty sophisticates who solve a murder between cocktails? This archetypal mystery, set in New York during Christmastime, now is available in both early typescript and authoritative version in Hammett: Complete Novels and Hammett: Crime Stories & Other Writings (Library of America, 2 vols., $35 each). Published the same year as Appointment in Samarra, The Thin Man remains one of the brightest, most exuberant detective tales of the last century -- not quite heartwarming suspense, but full of humor and wisdom.

REX ROBERTS IS THE NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT FOR Insight MAGAZINE.