jQuery: Handle fallback for failed AJAX Request

Can jQuery provide a fallback for failed AJAX calls? This is my try:

function update() {
    var requestOK = false;

    $.getJSON(url, function(){
        alert('request successful');
        requestOK = true;
    });

    if (!requestOK) {
        alert('request failed');
    }
}

Unfortunately, even if the callback function of the $.getJSON() method is called, i get the message 'request failed', before the callback function has the opportunity to set the requestOK variable. I think it's because the code runs in parallel. Is there a way to handle such situations? I thought about chaining or some way of waiting for the AJAX request, including its callback function. But how? Does anyone know how to do that?