‘My Girls’ by John O’Hara

My Girls by John O’Hara, 1937

The magic trick:

Sparkling, believable dialogue

A weekend double for John O’Hara here, a writer we haven’t highlighted on SSMT in nearly four years. That’s too long to go without one of his gems. We start with an oldie – “My Girls” from 1937.

This sets the stage for Cheever, Salinger, and Updike, no question, though I suppose Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis really set the stage for this, if not Wharton and Henry James. Who knows? It doesn’t matter if O’Hara is original. It only matters that it’s good. This story is quite good. It’s very brief, barely more than one scene. But that key scene – the conversation between Mrs. Cole and her daughter Jane is as good a dialogue as you will find. It keeps the plot moving but also is realistic to how people talk.

And that’s quite a trick on O’Hara’s part.

The selection:

“Hello,” Jane called from the hall.

“Jane, will you come here? Please? I want to talk to you.”

“In a minute.”

“No, now, please.”

“Mother, I’d really like to go upstairs, eef you don’t mind.”

“All right, but please –”

“All right!” said Jane. “What difference can two minutes …” Her voice died down.

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