The New York StoriesBy: John O'Hara Superb These thirty two stories inhabit the Technicolor vernaculars of taxi drivers, barbers, paper pushers and society matrons O'Hara was American fiction's greatest eavesdropper, recording the everyday speech and tone of all strata of mid century society Wall Street Journal John O'Hara remains the great chronicler of American society, and nowhere are his powers more evident than in his portraits of New York's so called Golden Age.