Redeeming John O'Hara  Published: August 24, 2003 (Page 2 of 4)
Yet the picture he paints of O'Hara is a frequently endearing
one, suggesting the doubts and anxieties behind the
abrasiveness. O'Hara is so needy and so transparent in his
snobbery and social climbing -- with his Rolls and his tweeds,
his collection of club ties and rosettes (many from clubs he
didn't belong to) -- that you can't help forgiving him. And
Wolff reminds us that in his later years O'Hara mellowed
considerably. His second and third marriages -- to Belle Wylie,
with whom he had a daughter, Wylie, and, after Belle died, to
her friend Katharine Barnes (known as Sister) -- were extremely
happy ones. Wealthy and more or less contented, O'Hara settled
into a life of uxorious country squiredom, first in Quogue, on
Long Island, and then in Princeton. He gave up drinking, on
doctor's orders, and became so serene, Wolff gently proposes,
that it was actually bad for his work. Like a lot of writers,
O'Hara wrote best when he had something to pr