‘How Can I Tell You?’ by John O’Hara

How Can I Tell You? by John O’Hara, 1963

The magic trick:

Consistently referring to the protagonist by his first and last names

I had an old collection of John O’Hara stories on my shelf. So I picked it up, and here we are with a week of O’Hara works from the early 1960s. He was old and cranky, and the stories are quite unhappy and negative. Which I really enjoyed.

We began with “How Can I Tell You?” – an especially bleak tale (even by O’Hara’s standard) of a small-town car salesman battling a vague sense of depression one day after selling a new Thunderbird to the mother of a boy in town.

What is it about this that bothers him so much? He can’t pinpoint it. The reader isn’t sure, either. The story never says for sure. But we do get clues. My favorite of the clues is the way the story – presented in the third-person – continually refers to him by his full name of Mark McGranville. Not Mark, but always Mark McGranville.

The initial effect is that the reader sees him as someone possibly important. He’s a proper noun; full name; he’s someone. The full effect though, within the context of the evolving plot, is one of mocking. This referencing of his full name is ironic; reflective of the gap between his expectations and his reality.

It’s subtle but excellently done.

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

The selection:

He locked his car and entered the taproom, hung his hat and coat on a clothes tree, and took a seat in a booth. Ernie came to wait on him.

“Well, hi, stranger,” said Ernie.

“Hello, Ernie,” said Mark McGranville. “Quiet.”

“Well, a little early. Never much action before six. The lunch trade till ha’ past two, then maybe a few strays during the afternoon. How’s it with you?’’

“Not bad. Pretty good.”

“Ed and Paul were in last night, them and their wives for dinner. Paul made a pretty good load. What’s her name, his wife?”

“Charlotte.”

“She snuck over and asked me to cut his drinks, but I couldn’t do that. I said to her, what’d she want to do? Get me in trouble? You know Paul, he caught me watering his drinks and he’d have it all over town in no time. He’s no bargain anyway, Paul.”

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