Appointment at Ashley

When I went into Johns Hopkins for cancer surgery almost a year ago, I took along only one book, to read in my couple days of hospital recuperation. It was John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra. I didn't know anything about the book, and had never before read an O'Hara novel. I can't even recall why I picked that book to read at that time.

I didn't read Appointment in Samarra in the hospital. I was way too drugged up, on both painkillers and Librium and Ativan. I was also too confused and upset, because my surgeon had just confronted me with my alcoholism and I knew the game was up and I was going directly into rehab at Father Martin's. When I checked into Ashley, they confiscated the O'Hara book, which pissed me off. I hated that invasion of my privacy. I hadn't learned yet that there was not much privacy at Ashley.

After a few days, I noticed that people were reading books, but only books related to addiction recovery and spiritual growth. I had no interest in those, but I was interested in the turquoise-covered book that a dozen or so people were reading, called A Million Little Pieces. I tried to get the PSAs to get me a copy in town, but they said no. They were not confiscating the copies already there, they explained, but they were not allowing anyone else to bring a copy in. The book, a memoir of alcohol recovery at Hazelden, was very anti-AA, and therefore considered borderline contraband.

I decided to smuggle in a copy for myself. I was making periodic trips back to Hopkins for medical followup. I rode in the van and was always under the watchful eye of an Ashley driver, but on the next trip, while he was parking the van, I ran to the hospital store and bought a copy of A Million Little Pieces. I tucked it in my pants, snuck it into Ashley, and read it, then passed it on to another recovering alcoholic. Although we all learned later that the memoir was largely fabricated, I still found it inspirational, and think about it even today. It was an important milestone in my recovery.

That's the only book I read at Ashley. When I checked out they returned my belongings, including a (now empty) flask and my copy of Appointment in Samarra. I didn't read the novel right away, but about a month later (I was unemployed and had plenty of time on my hands) I picked it up and read it through. I was surprised to find that it is about a seriously decomposed alcoholic, who basically drinks himself to death in the final chapter. I doubt that the PSAs at Ashley even knew this when they seized the book.

The prelude to Appointment in Samarra is a brief anecdote by W. Somerset Maugham, which reads (I'm paraphrasing):

A wealthy merchant in Baghdad sent his servant to the market to buy food. While there, he was jostled in the crowd by a woman, and he returned home pale and shaken. He told his master, I encountered Death in the marketplace, and she threatend me. Please give me your fastest horse so I might ride to Samarra tonight and escape Death. So the merchant gave his servant a fast horse, and he rode off. The merchant himself went to the marketplace the next day, where he confronted the woman: Why did you threaten my servant? he demanded. She seemed taken aback and replied, I did not threaten him, I was just surprised and confused to see him in the Baghdad marketplace yesterday, since I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.