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    <name><![CDATA[Stuart]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>        
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      <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Mar 13 11:48:26 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 31 07:59:20 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[My second (or is it third?) reread of this novel, I finally gave it enough attention in a short enough span of time to understand it. Ironically enough, now that I've read it through without leaving a month in between sittings or forgetting it on a bus, I feel that Gatsby's place among the greats may be due to its accessibility and simplicity. Compared to Fitzgerald's 'The Beautiful and Damned', Gatsby has a rounded, fairy-tale quality in its straightforwardness and outcome... but I suppose that could be said of all tragedies. The tone of the two books is similar, but 'The Beautiful and Damned' is more sprawling, varied, distracting and busy, so that as the tragic years go by you are made a witness, but kept masterfully unaware of the creeping approach of fate, unlike Gatsby's meteoric arrival and departure. I enjoyed Gatsby this time - Fitzgerald's language is as always untouchably marvellous, but I prefer Damned.<br/><br/><br/>]]></body>
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