BUtterfield 8
By John O'Hara; Fran Lebowitz (Introduction by)
(Modern Library, Paperback, 9780812966985, 256pp.)
Publication Date: April 1, 2003
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback, Paperback, Hardcover
Categories: General
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A bestseller upon its publication in 1935, BUtterfield 8 was inspired by a news account of the discovery of the body of a beautiful young woman washed up on a Long Island beach. Was it an accident, a murder, a suicide? The circumstances of her death were never resolved, but O’Hara seized upon the tragedy to imagine the woman’s down-and-out life in New York City in the early 1930s.
“O’Hara understood better than any other American writer how class can both reveal and shape character,” Fran Lebowitz writes in her Introduction. With brash honesty and a flair for the unconventional, BUtterfield 8 lays bare the unspoken and often shocking truths that lurked beneath the surface of a society still reeling from the effects of the Great Depression. The result is a masterpiece of American fiction.
Fran Lebowitz is the author of two books of essays, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, and a children’s book, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas. She is currently at work on a novel entitled Exterior Signs of Wealth, and Progress, a book-length essay.
“A man who knows exactly what he is writing about and has written it marvelously well.” —Ernest Hemingway
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