Skip the movie …

… John O’Hara’s “Pal Joey” at 75: Still an Exemplary Novella. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The recipient of Joey’s letters is Ted, a bandleader friend whose replies we never see but who, unlike his correspondent, is actually going somewhere. We can feel Joey, amid his protestations of pleasure, choking on the news that Ted has been 
booked at the Paramount in Manhattan and written up in 
Down Beat. Joey himself is no further along at the end of the 
book than he was at the beginning, and O’Hara’s small fictional gem would be unbearable if it were twice as long as it is. 
The author knew when to stop—late in his career he wouldn’t 
exhibit such restraint—and Pal Joey remains one of the books 
that makes John O’Hara an even greater master of the novella than he was of the short story.