John O'Hara - still a respected author or now passe?

[pfgpowell]

A few years ago, I came across John O'Hara's novel Appointment In Samarra, read it, liked it, and then bought and read Butterfield 8. That, too, was an excellent novel, written by a man who know what he was doing. I then bought a collection of O'Hara's New Yorker short stories, and rate them, too. I haven't yet read any further novels, perhaps put off by reading that they weren't quite as good (although one should judge these things for oneself, of course).

I don't doubt that O'Hara is remembered and respected in academia etc, but just how well known is he by the general reading public. Hemingway is still read and perhaps better known, but what about O'Hara?

I know Liz Taylor won an Oscar for her performance in the film Butterfield 8, but that film was pretty much rubbish sanitised for public consumption compared to O'Hara's novel. The novel was far more subtle. The film? Nothing special, though perhaps 'shocking' at the time it was released.

PS I am a Brit who lives in Britain, so perhaps that has a bearing.

[actioncando]

O'Hara complained during his lifetime that he was grossly underestimated. I actually live not all that far from where he was born. He isn't as well regarded as Hemingway, but Hemingway was very good at self-promotion and the media loved his eccentricities. I occasionally read articles about O'Hara in the New Yorker but aside from that, I rarely hear much about him. He seems to have fallen into the same category of accomplished yet barely remembered writers that Miller, Wolfe, Roth and others have succumbed to. I've never read any of his novels but I will inevitably do so.

[ennison]

It is the fate of most of us to be forgotten. Why should writers be different. It is only a matter of time before Will and Leo are consigned to the dustbin of history to paraphrase Trot or some cove. Ice pick surgery guy. O Hara is a decent writer especially his short stories.