In an old Middle Eastern tale, a servant is jostled by Death in the marketplace in Baghdad. The servant borrows his master’s horse and flees to Samarra, about 80 miles away, “so Death will not find me.” The master goes to the marketplace and asks Death why she threatened his servant. Death says that she didn’t threaten him; she had given a start of surprise. “I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”

This version is Somerset Maugham’s. In 1934, John O’Hara used it as the epigraph to a novel called The Infernal Grove. O’Hara thoroughly Americanized the story: Julian English is a successful Cadillac dealer in Pennsylvania. When Dorothy Parker told O’Hara about Maugham’s version, O’Hara changed his story’s name to Appointment in Samarra. It made no difference. You cannot dodge fate.