Writer Good

My English teacher junior year was from the Coal Region of Pennsylvania, and when he made us read John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra he spent most of our class discussion time expounding upon the differences between anthracite and bituminous coal, which is about as enthralling as you might expect but is one of the few things that stuck with me from that year (in brief: anthracite is harder), the other things being that there must be no better feeling than getting the fuck out of Pennsylvania and also John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra is one hell of a great book to read. Here Lorin Stein tells you why.