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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
No significant violence
Language
Some
Some strong period language
Sexual Content
Some
Adult sexual content; affairs and marital complexity
Substance Use
Some
Significant alcohol use; Prohibition-era drinking is central
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Profound psychological portrait of self-destruction; the novel is an anatomy of a man undoing himself
What this book is about
Julian English is a successful car dealer in 1930 Gibbsville, Pennsylvania — part of the right social class, married to the right woman, friends with the right people. In three days, for reasons he can barely articulate, he destroys everything he has. O'Hara's 1934 debut is one of American literature's great tragedies of social self-destruction, spare and unsentimental.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Adult sexual content
Heavy alcohol use
Protagonist's self-destruction
Reader Verification
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