O’Hara is largely unread these days, but a Writer’s Almanac piece led me to read this book, and I was pleased I to have done so. Almost quitting 1/3 in, I stuck with it and enjoyed several jewels. The stories are brief (2-3 pages in most cases) short on action or arc, long on dialogue and the particular description. Taking place in New York City, a Long Island resort, or the far West, O’Hara captures the vernacular and the telling moment in these 32 stories—the overheard conversation in “Summer’s Day,” the town/gown confrontation in “Price’s Always Open,” the lost life in “The Decision” where the brass nameplate Fromei Founselma summarizes the loss, etc. Begley reminds us that O’Hara, winner of the National Book Award in 1955 for Ten North Frederick, published 11 volumes of short stories in his life and had many of his 400 stories published in The New Yorker. Begley: “Certainly there are short stories by Hemingway and a small number of other writers that some may find better than O’Hara; but overall O’Hara in my opinion stands unequaled.”