The Fundamentals of Play

by Caitlin Macy

Caitlin Macy's remarkable first novel is an evocation of a time and a place in which those things that were always so dependable--money, class, family--are threatened on all sides.

Narrated by George Lenhart, scion of a family who lost their fortune but not their good name, The Fundamentals of Play follows five friends from prep school as they enter adult life in New York City in the aimless, early nineties, before the internet explosion. They work entry-level jobs at investment banks, spend weekends in the Hamptons. At their center is the fickle, elusive Kate Goodenow. Everyone is in love with Kate and only George understands her heart was captured long ago, and for good.

Hailed as a Great Gatsby for the end of the twentieth century--The Fundamentals of Play introduces a brilliant new Lost Generation longing to live careless lives, while the situations around them are increasingly fraught with importance--and the world threatens to leave them behind.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Terrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Great Gatsby meets Bright Lights, Big City. Entertaining, but with annoying sentences along the lines of "He gave me a glance that told me he understood why I had done what I did last July and, what's more, he approved of it." Authors love glances like that, but they never seem to occur in my life.

[ayeshaxbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't decide either to hate or love this book. Just putting it back on shelf.

[Susan]

An entertaining enough read, but Macy inhabits a male narrator unconvincingly.

[Lynn Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this book obviously loved The Great Gatsby a lot more than I did. Much of this book seems to be an homage to the earlier classic. The tone, the narration by a young man who is somewhat an insider and somewhat an outsider to the charmed circle he writes about, etc...

The basic setup here is that our narrator, George Lenhart, comes from an old family that has lost its fortune. He got a good education at Dartmouth and now he's a baby investment banker living with a roommate in New York. The story meanders through the dramas of the newly graduated as friends start to establish circles and slowly pair off. The Daisy figure in this book is Kate Goodenow, who comes from a wealthy family. George is obviously attracted to her, as are both his old money friend Chat and up-and-coming (but very much "not our kind")Harry Lombardi.

The growing disillusionment of post-college life builds against the backdrop of this love triangle (quadrangle?), but it never really catches fire. The book has a few clever moments and there are some great observations of life during the tech boom, but much of the narration feels politely bland.

It's a shame that so much of the story gets lost in the voluminous narration because when Macy lets her characters talk, there are some great observations of social class and mores of the early to mid 90s in the book. While the action appears to be taking place in the early 90s, many of the social observations struck home for me. I was a new grad in DC in the early 2000s, and if you switched out investment banking for lobbying and government contracting, this world would seem instantly familiar in many ways.

Not a bad book, but it could have been so much more.

[Anna Davey · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5! Convincing ish characters, I always find it interesting when a female author inhabits a male perspective.

Enjoyable enough, particularly the second half.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Gatsby for Turn of Millennium? Perhaps. But you might say it was Twilight meets House of Mirth, as well. It was all about that spooky dream of adolescence and especially, nostalgic adolescence, mixed with the tragedy of pointless wealth. There was really something unreal about a lot of it.

I liked the first 3/4ths or 4/5ths of the book pretty well, especially the author's somewhat cryptic insightful observations, the Gatsbygothic spookiness, and the reasonably good characters. Calling George a "good sport" gives a name for such fellows as the protagonists of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood-class novels. The book was readable, i.e. lacking boring sections, so at the first order of book success, it passed with flying colors.

However, that last 1/4th or 1/5th caused it quite some trouble at the higher order of things, that is, how the book held together. If I thought she wrote the book a chapter at a time, in order, against a deadline, I might say she ran out of time and rushed her way through the ending, but I don't think this was the case. Nor do I think she was making it up as she went along and kind of lost interest, as I suspect was the case with Richard Bartle's InSight InFlames. Rather, I think she's stronger at observations and characters than at plot, and where she had to rely on plot, she didn't have the imagination to make something that lived up to the foreshadowing (and the promise of the strengths of the earlier book, especially the backstories). I looked her up and see that she subsequently wrote a book of short stories and has not written another novel, which makes sense.

[Dena · Rating 5 out of 5]

And see, I know it's a different novel, a different milieu, a different time, but I found this to be much more resonant than, say, PREP (or even GOSSIP GIRL). I read this at the same time as the Aimee Bender and the Kevin Brockmeier (perhaps?), up in Western Massachusetts, and together they all created a world as substantial and desirable as cotton candy for me. And I've remembered it fondly and desultorily looked for it from time to time. So I think you should read it, too.

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great characters. Wish it had been written chronologically. Would have liked more emphasis on the dramatic moments, but George’s musings were excellent ambience.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

How this book gets only 3.23/5 stars is beyond me, lol.

I think that its curse of being compared to “The Great Gatsby” gave me certain…expectations. I feel that when a book is compared to a literary great, it should be as good at, if not better, in order to really earn it, know what I mean?

So, why four stars and not five?
Simply because while the plot is so solid, and the prose is beautiful, something about it didn’t “flow,” you know? On that front, there is something about the novel that keeps it from flowing smoothly throughout. Coupled with the last few chapters that I felt were written last-minute, and it just makes ending a bit anticlimactic.

In short:
“The Great Gatsby” is great.
“The The Fundamentals of Play” is good.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read Caitlin Macy's fiction in reverse order of when she wrote it, which means I read this, her first novel, last. I also liked it least. It just seemed to be trying way too hard to evoke Gatsby in a way that felt self-consciously literary or writerly or something.

I think her short stories, Spoiled, are the best of the lot, though Mrs. was certainly entertaining, if a bit preposterous.

[Lori Winslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept looking to see who the author was, and was surprised everytime when I realized the author was a woman. The book is told from the perspective of George, and his and others love of Kate Goodenow. I loved the long ago time frame, I felt that I knew that time period, making this a bit like catching up with an old friend.

[Caryn Breen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book wildly irritating and in love with its own cleverness. I was pushed to understand why the characters did the senseless things they did, but I never believed in it. This read like Great Gatsby fangirl fiction.

[Grace Hoffmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little heavy handed with the whole preppy/sailing thing. But interesting cover of the The Great Gatsby. I'm reading this now with a view to reading her new book, Mrs.

[Lori Meyers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it...stopped 1/4 way in :-(

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever retelling of Great Gatsby! Macy really made it her own while paying tribute to the source material. Great cast of (unlikeable) characters, use of setting (NYC), and examination of post-college/boarding school life for a handful of rich (and not-so-rich) twenty-somethings in the early 1990s.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book about a decade ago. At the time, I was a young twenty-something, and Caitlin Macy's debut novel definitely spoke to me. I don’t remember many specifics, but what I do remember is how well Macy captured post-college disillusionment. As others have stated, the book focuses on a group of privileged New Englanders who attended boarding school together and are now navigating their twenties. Quite simply, it's about four men's obsessions with their former classmate, Kate Goodenow.

I distinctly remember my favorite of the four guys, the “Heathcliff” of the novel – Nick Beale. He skipped the college scene to become a sort of Bohemian sailor. (That wasn’t spoiler, I promise). I only mention this for the “Dawson’s Creek” fans. People keep comparing this novel to The Great Gatsby, and while that’s a valid comparison, I also saw a little bit of the Joey/Dawson/Pacey love triangle in this story. So, if you miss Capeside, you might want to read this novel. And, with that, I’ll leave you with this: “I don’t want to wait / for our lives to be over …”

[Kate Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend who mentioned casually during lunch that I reminded her of one of the main characters who also happens to be named Kate. Obviously, I scooped up the book to figure out what exactly she meant. The book is marketed as a Gatsby-esque tale of post-grads in Manhattan during the 1990s, and it lives up to all of the stereotypes that that description evokes. What makes it stand out, however, is Caitlin Macy’s vibrant rendering of the characters and the way she humanizes them by displaying all of their flaws and quirks. Much of the story revolved around New England locales, which I loved, especially the descriptions of summers spent in Maine, as well as life in Manhattan. It was interesting how Macy’s version of Manhattan is more Mad Men then grunge—her characters work 9-to-5 jobs, hold mixers in their apartments, go to city clubs, and long to be engaged by 25. THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PLAY meanders a little bit too much in the end, but overall it is a great and interesting read that is sure to satisfy readers searching for a modern GATSBY.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a smart book - in the writing style as well as the overall conceit - but there were too many things bugging me.
This novel centers around one woman, Kate, who has four men panting after her, and the narrator, George, is a sort of wash out who chases her for most of the book. Kate is a spoiled and demanding woman who has no endearing features that I could discern, so the obsession over her made no sense to me. In addition, she seems to leap from man to man with little thought and I found this rather troubling.
Overall the story served as a commentary to the rich world of NY as well as an interesting turning point as the world was about to break into the internet (it was funny to read about characters who think having a "mobile phone" is arrogant and dumb), but it was trying to hard to be a modern Gatsby and the characters left me cold.

[Stephanie Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caitlin Macy is a smart and savvy young writer, but in The Fundamentals of Play she strives for a tone that her material unfortunately just can't carry. The Great Gatsby in the internet age this is not. However, reading it, one hopes that in five years Macy bangs out her version of Tender is the Night. I would love to read a great novel about the American marriage in the internet age.

[Adina · Rating 4 out of 5]

just finnished this book, which i enjoyed. it has inspired me to want to re-read "the great gatsby", which i see as kind of an archytipical analysis of the charms of wealth. if that is a genre, i think i'm wierdly drawn to it (a.k.a gossip girl, lots of stuff) . . . would love more maybe lighter-hearted recs on the subject matter, (this book was sort of depressing)just as stuff to get me to stop watching so much t.v!. . . tried to pick up some charles dickens recently, who i'd always had the idea that i wanted to read, it t'was impossible!

[Sundai Valcich · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers the topic of wealthy young adults in New York City. A review on the book compared it to a modern "Great Gatsby" but I would't go that far. It was an interesting read to learn about the different players in the game, but I didn't find it to be very original. Parts of the book dragged along and I didn't feel any sense of accomplishment or enrichment upon finishing the book. The writing style was okay. I may check out other books by the author but this isn't a book that I would recommend to others.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This remake of the Great Gatsby offers pithy commentary for the college graduates of the 90s and Y2K years. At times, one gets the sense that Macy herself is a bit of a Georgie Len, both envying the ease of the old money set that the Ivy League has given him access to but never really belonging, and at the same time disdaining those who belong and those who try to hard to seem like they do. In the end, it is as much a time capsule of 20-somethings lack of direction and search for meaning as it is a lens into the upper echelons of society.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

She should stick to short stories. There just isn't enough happening here to stay interesting for ~300 pages. The characters are fairly dull and unlikeable; everyone's obsessed with this girl Kate who has zero personality other than alternating between mildly bitchy and completely helpless. Basically, one thing happens in this book and it's not worth the time it takes to get there. A big disappointment.

[J.S. Kitololo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. A ride through the nuanced class structure of the US, pulling no punches, rubbing the sheer materiality of life right in our faces. But with sufficient glamour and grace to draw a worldly smile.
Is a nice slow book about being rich, or not, in the real world. There's a fictional story in there about a certain sophisticated kind of star-crossed love. It's the perfect McGuffin--is that the term?--for this East Coast class frolic.

[Rebekka Istrail · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Yale-educated author places her characters at Dartmouth for their college years, when the plot begins to roll. Yeah, Dartmouth pride! And chagrin in seeing how some of the characters (all of them, really) end up. The characters' lives have a ring of truth and dark overtones. This book seems to have been inspired by The Great Gatsby.

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor man's Gatsby, but Macy tries to make up the difference with a rich man's vocabulary; she describes a band on tour with a word more obscure than "itinerant" but instead of the word I remember only the irritation of having to look it up. Thanks, Caitlin. How come you never published another novel? Oh, right...

[reading is my hustle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Gatsby set in New York, modern day times. I hope that Ms. Macy tips her hat to Fitzgerald while touring or giving interviews. That said, I enjoyed this book. I like the idea of taking an old story and setting it in modern day times (i.e. Jane Smiley's, "A Thousand Acres," or Helen Fielding's, "Bridget Jones's Diary", and David James Duncan's, "The Brothers K").

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Great Gatsby meets the Emperor's Children... except I didn't enjoy it as much as either of those novels and it certainly isn't of the same literary quality as The Great Gatsby. However, Caitlin Macy writes well and I certainly know someone represented by each of her main characters, which made the book entertaining.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting character study of people in of a "certain class" in the late 80's/early 90's in NYC. Whether or not this was intentional, the main characters were pitable not likeable. Also there was a rampant misogyny that was somewhat disturbing as if the author felt that women of this era were only defined by the men around them and was expressing some post-feminism backlash.

[Marjie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was surprised I didn't like this very much -- enough to put it aside without finishing it. I enjoyed Macy's book of short stories, and I found this moderately interesting in that it reminded me of my short-lived work experience in investment banking, but the dialogue was choppy and the characters weren't engaging.