BUtterfield 8
by John O'Hara

Read August 2007
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, Roseville branch
Essay written December 26th, 2007

I was in the O's at the Roseville library and came across the John O'Hara. I had read his Appointment In Samarra a few years ago, it was good. And I had heard good things about BUtterfield 8. So I found it, but it was one novel in a three-novel book. Picked it up anyway and went to the computer to find out if the library has a copy of that book as its own volume. They don't. But they did have a copy of the movie "BUtterfield 8" on video, and it was checked in that very moment at the library branch I was currently visiting. Snatched it up too.

Books are a three-week loan, movies only one. And clearly I needed to read the book BUtterfield 8 before I saw the movie "BUtterfield 8." So I chugged, and read the book in five days so I could have an evening to watch the movie before it was due.

Panned out. It was fun to set that goal for myself and accomplish it. Reading a short 150-page (or something) book like that in a week doesn't sound like much, but I'm a slow reader, and I had two other books I was reading at the time.

It (the book) was good. Believable and tragic. Evocative. Better than Appointment In Samarra, which I hardly remember at all. The movie was pretty good too, but for different reasons

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