Ian’s review of The Great Gatsby > Likes and Comments
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Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago. The language which is highly poetic got me into other literature in some regards...
It is interesting to think about the American Dream and this novel. I wrote several essays about the American Dream, referencing this and have to write another based on my trip to America. I have to read this: The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation before meeting the author.
Fantastic review Ian, that last paragraph was good enough to print and hang on a wall.
"when laid out methodically"
You're a master of the methodical layout, Ian!
Wonderful review, Ian. Great analysis as always however I cringed a bit at this line:
Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing?
Jonathan wrote: "Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago."
Thanks, Jonathan. I'd love to read more about your views. It will also be interesting to compare notes about the film.
Dolors wrote: "Fantastic review Ian, that last paragraph was good enough to print and hang on a wall."
Thanks, Dolors. There is a Worm in the (Big) Apple in this novel that fascinated me, and I wondered whether it might possibly escape our attention sometimes. Certainly, my reading was different this time.
Fionnuala wrote: ""when laid out methodically"
You're a master of the methodical layout, Ian!"
Thanks, Fionnuala. I'm actually a methodical layabout ;)
Praveen wrote: "Wounderfull review......"
Thanks, Praveen.
Garima wrote: "Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing? "
Thanks, Garima. Sorry if I offended you. I was in a bit of a dilemma about the language of possessions and chattels that started to creep into my review, in support of the capitalist theme. I toyed with using the word "person" instead of "thing", but the point I was trying to make was that Gatsby craved nothing but Daisy, in the sense of he craved no material possessions, no state of mind and no person. In Gatsby's case, I was trying to use "thing" as a broader word than "object" or person. Even now, having looked, I can't think of a better synonym for what I was after. Any ideas?
Ian wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago."
Thanks, Jonathan. I'd love to read more about your views. It will also be in..."
I plan on a re-read as I look more into this whole idea of The Great American Dream. I'm yet to look into how Bill Clinton apparently framed it as: if you work hard and play by the rules you have a chance to get up in the world. I'm fascinated by that and the idea of: does Gatsby play fair? Does anyone really play fair in this novel? Or does their hubris and belief in changing the past come back to bite them?
I'm definitely interested in comparing film notes. I'm a little worried as Baz Lurman tends to be very bombastic and melodramatic and in no way is he generally very subtle but it might just work for this movie!
Ian wrote: "Garima wrote: "Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing? "
Thanks, Garima..."
No offence taken! :)
And I got your point and no, I have no ideas either, hehe! but I'd have re-phrased the sentence like this:
Daisy is the only one for whom Gatsby yearns. She is the one he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25
On one hand you have used 'she' and on the other hand 'thing' which looks kind of awkward, no? Just my stupid 2 cents.
These are good suggestions. The dilemma I have is that I was trying to say that she is just one of a set of he, she, they and it that he could have sought after. She is a singular out of a selection of plural. I wonder whether other languages deal with the issue better?
Excellent review Ian as ever.
As for "The Great American Dream", it's all a question of interpretation.
I love Scott-Fitzgerald, have all of his books but I don't believe that this is his best; he lived in an "exotic" period of time. His jaunts into Paris with Zelda are so well documented but how much of this particular work was written under "the influence of drink"?
Does it take alcohol to bring out the essence of a man's writing? If so, well... And that makes me smile and reflect at this apparent contradiction.
I think yours and Nataliya's reviews cleared up a lot of things for me, Ian.
For a long time, I couldn't quite understand why The Great Gatsby had been given the epithet of a Great American Novel and why it deserved a place alongside masterpieces such as The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird and Beloved and so on.
Next time I read it, hopefully I'll be able to see this classic in its true light.
"While the novel is perceived as hailing the Great American Dream, the paradox is that it highlights how great are the forces that are lined up to resist the efforts of a man who aspires to the Dream, especially if that man is a trespasser who covets another man's wife, even if he loves her and she loves him."
The above line especially makes a remarkable amount of sense.
Thank you for continuing to provide enlightenment as always. :)
Ian wrote: "She is a singular out of a selection of plural.
That's a great line ;)
Garima wrote: "Ian wrote: "She is a singular out of a selection of plural.
That's a great line ;)"
Haha, I was thinking of you when I said that ;)
Great review. You've got me thinking about the materialism at the heart American Dream (the matter of the the heart?). It's telling that Luhrmann's film sells itself on opulence. I think it would be interesting to contrast GG with Bellow's Augie March in terms of self-realization and the Dream.
I've read that Baz consulted the earlier version of the novel (Trimalchio), which is apparently darker. I think that beneath all the parties and glamour is a dark story, and it would be great to see a genuinely Noir film of it.
I love your suggestion about Augie March. Let's do it.
Samadrita wrote: "I think yours and Nataliya's reviews cleared up a lot of things for me, Ian.."
Thanks, Samadrita. Your review is still a very fair and generous reading.
Lynne wrote: "Excellent review Ian as ever.
As for "The Great American Dream", it's all a question of interpretation..."
Thanks, Lynne. I'm not sure I understand your comments about interpretation and the influence of drink. What is your interpretation? Do you think the influence of drink shows in the writing?
We had a course where we analyzed this book from several different forms of criticism. The one that really caught me was the feminist critique (since we were discussing Kate Millett the other day). I have an essay (not by Millett though, can't think of her name now) somewhere, I'll dig it up, but it had this cool look at Daisy.
Okay, found it. 'The background for the experience of disillusionment and betrayal revealed in the novel is the discovery of American, and Daisy's failure of Gatsby is symbolic of the failure of america to live up to the expectations in the imagination of the men who "discovered" it. America is female; to be American is male; and the quintessential American experience is betrayal by women.' Judith Fetterley is the author here. She talks about how tGG is about how men possess power by possessing Daisy and refers back to Millett's essays on Sexual Politics often.
I need to reread this one, but our professor had taught it as Nick being essential as a narrator because he mirrors Daisy's thoughts on the two men, and analyzed it as Nick was in love with Gatsby so while Gatsby experiences dissolutionment, Nick simultaneously experiences that through Gatsby. But a lot of his theory pinned on the scene that Fitzgerald cleverly disguises where Nick has a sexual relationship with an older man.
Anyways, felt I'd share these ideas to see your thoughts on them.
Most importantly, fantastic review. Very well done!
I'm glad we Americans have Fitzgerald-and now Ian-to figure it all out for us. And I agree totally with s.penfevich's remarks about Nick's sexual infatuation with Gatsby. The critics tie themselves into knots trying to explain that away!
Gary wrote: "I'm glad we Americans have Fitzgerald-and now Ian-to figure it all out for us. And I agree totally with s.penfevich's remarks about Nick's sexual infatuation with Gatsby...."
Haha, thanks, Gary. It fascinates me that all but one of the films of TGG have been made by non-Americans, just as a film about a quintessential American (I Shot Andy Warhol) was made by a Canadian.
The problems of captialism apply equally here and in the UK, although we've not tended to deny the existence of class or status in our countries.
Old Money loved to fight off New Money, while the rest of us dance and look on from the sidelines, like it's a circus.
s.penkevich wrote: "We had a course where we analyzed this book from several different forms of criticism. The one that really caught me was the feminist critique (since we were discussing Kate Millett the other day)...."
Thanks, spenke. This is a fascinating issue. I had wanted to say something about the triangulations in the plot, and this is one of them. At a persoanl level, Gatsby might have seen this as a betrayal in the last hours of his life. However, I don't see it as simply a woman betraying a man, or vice versa.
Daisy established at the end that she was not a mere prize for the men to fight over. She was actually just as much a player and a capitalist as the others. Like any business, she might have been a target for a takeover or merger, and she decided that it was in the best interests of the family wealth that she represented to stay with Tom.
This might be foreshadowed in Jordan, who is just as able to act in her interest and potentially deceive as any male/capitalist.
Nick was in a totally different league. A bond salesman, not an entrepreneur.
I'm not sure how much to make of the homosexual perspective. I've previously thought this might have been an issue, but I might have been influenced by the choice of actor to play Nick in the films.
Nick falls in and out of love with Gatsby throughout. Midway, he thinks they're all as bad as each other. By the end, he admires Gatsby as better than the rest, and he is disgusted by how the system dealt with him.
It's interesting that they all retreat to the mid-west, as if they can't handle the hyper-masculine business culture in the East.
Once again, the East expels those it doesn't want to the West.
Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?
Con McVeety wrote: "Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?"
I swayed a bit through the book. It depends where the ball ends up resting for each of us. There's no rights or wrongs, only opinions. You've expressed yours well.
Ian wrote: "Con McVeety wrote: "Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?"
I swayed a bit through the book. It depends where the ball ends up resting for each of us. There's no rights or wrongs, onl..."
I'm surprised to see the penultimate sentence, even though I subscribe to it! But perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.
PS. That is a beautiful photo from the Telegraph. Do you need some special account for those?
Ted, I'm not sure what you're trying to imply. if you have followed my responses on GR, you will have learned that the only opinions I question are those that are offensive or gratuitous personal attacks on authors.
Nice review, Ian. I agree that Fitzgerald may have used more adverbs than we use today, but wouldn't you agree that his prose in Gatsby is so beautifully fluid? I think that is part of the book's seduction. Gertrude Stein complimented him on this book, something to the effect that he wrote so naturally in sentences.
Ian, you could make a fortune selling pre-written papers to lazy college students. Just putting that out there.
(As always, this review is incredible. It has been more than a decade since I read this book and you have convinced me that I really need to do myself a favor and revisit it sooner rather than later.)
Usually it seems that a lot of reviewers on Goodreads (not you) have the opposite opinion, Ian. I was surprised that anyone would express the view (which I believe) that most of what is given here about books is largely personal opinion, personal like/dislike.
When I said "perhaps I shouldn't be surprised" that was meant to indicate that I realized that your own views do not appear to be so rigid as some others views.
Wonderful response, I too tend to prefer it from the lens of capitalism, but I liked where Fetterley was going with the whole bit against how in that literary period, to be American was to be male and to experience it that way. I need to read Millett's Sexual Politics though, I feel like feminist critique is one that I'm not good at expressing and fear that no matter how hard I try to express it, I'm doomed to be wrong haha. I love the whole concept of viewing the relationships as mergers, that is brilliant!
What would Fitzgerald think of rap in the movie based on his book from the Jazz Age? For that matter what would he think of high society today? What whould he think of Jeresy Shore and the fact that less people read? Also why are novels,films and T.V. shows filled with adultery so popular and held in such high regard? someone at least answer the last question and name three great books, films, and T.V. shows that don't center on adultery.
Ted wrote: "Usually it seems that a lot of reviewers on Goodreads (not you) have the opposite opinion, Ian."
Thanks, Ted. As you know, I have plenty of opinions, but I express them in open forum. I welcome contrary views in such a forum, and I assume that no one will oppose my right to express contrary views. I have recently been attributed with a few views that were ostensibly expressed in personal messages. Insofar as these attributions apply to me, they were not true.
Madeleine wrote: "Ian, you could make a fortune selling pre-written papers to lazy college students. Just putting that out there.."
Haha. Thanks, Madeleine. It would be nice to make a fortune out of my opinions, but to be honest my main goal is to get readers into bed with a good book.
Once in bed, it's up to book and reader to do their own thing. I am no Cyrano.
Tom wrote: "Nice review, Ian. I agree that Fitzgerald may have used more adverbs than we use today."
Thanks, Tom. I highlighted about three or four adverbial passages and hundreds of other passages that I loved. I was originally going to do a much more text-based review and discuss the beauty of the prose. Even the adverbial stuff was just being picky, it certainly flowed off the tongue beautifully, besides they were things that a person like Nick would say in real life.
If I ever wrote a novel, I would regard this as a model worth following. That's how highly I rate it.
s.penkevich wrote: "Wonderful response, I too tend to prefer it from the lens of capitalism, but I liked where Fetterley was going with the whole bit against how in that literary period, to be American was to be male ..."
Thanks, spenke. I read a bit of her essay on Google Books and thought she made valid points. I guess I saw Daisy as less of a victim than Myrtle, while Jordan seemed to have the street smarts to get by in a competitive world. Notice the triangulation again.
s.penkevich wrote: "I need to read Millett's Sexual Politics"
It's must read stuff. I read it a long time ago, and recently re-read the Miller critique. It's powerful, hard-hitting stuff. Nothing to fear, unless you're sensitive around the testicular region.
I suppose it does "both adulate and perpetuate the Great American Dream, while simultaneously subverting it", and yet it still feels relevant to a contemporary Brit who has no emotional investment in the concept. True skill.
Cecily wrote: "I suppose it does "both adulate and perpetuate the Great American Dream, while simultaneously subverting it", and yet it still feels relevant to a contemporary Brit who has no emotional investment ..."
That's very much what I wanted to imply: that wherever we live and work, the aspirational aspects of capitalism have built-in limitations. They apply in Britain and Australia, although we are much more used to recognising class barriers than Americans.
Then again, I might be totally mistaken.
Wiki just reminded me that the Great Australian Dream is just to own your own home.
I can't find a wiki entry for British Dream.
Is it still to live in a welfare state, to be comfortably numb, to live in quiet desperation, and on a good day to beat the Aussies in the Ashes?
I recently read this book for the first time, and I have to say, the writing blew me away. It is some of the most casually observant writing I have ever read. What I mean by that is he mentions the way people move or act in an off-hand manner, but these little throw-away lines contain amazing unique insights into things people do or how people act. I want to read it many times over. The words are chosen as carefully as the words of a poem. It's quite a contrast to modern writing styles.
Another thing that was poetic was the way he used recurring themes- a particular one was dangerous driving. First he mentions Jordan Baker's dangerous driving, then the accident outside Gatsby's house, and finally the cataclysmic tragedy. Although these are not related to each other, I appreciated how he wove them in, a sign of a true master.
What wonderful comments, Kylie. You should put them in your review. I like the combination of casual and observant.
Thank you Ian. Perhaps I should write a review, although I doubt I have much to add to all the wonderful insights people have already expressed. However, it did occur to me just now that all the dangerous driving references might be a metaphor for the style of life this set was leading. Reckless and heedless and rolling over everyone else.
The problems occur when two careless people collide.
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Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago. The language which is highly poetic got me into other literature in some regards...It is interesting to think about the American Dream and this novel. I wrote several essays about the American Dream, referencing this and have to write another based on my trip to America. I have to read this: The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation before meeting the author.
Fantastic review Ian, that last paragraph was good enough to print and hang on a wall.
"when laid out methodically"You're a master of the methodical layout, Ian!
Wonderful review, Ian. Great analysis as always however I cringed a bit at this line: Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing?
Jonathan wrote: "Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago."Thanks, Jonathan. I'd love to read more about your views. It will also be interesting to compare notes about the film.
Dolors wrote: "Fantastic review Ian, that last paragraph was good enough to print and hang on a wall."Thanks, Dolors. There is a Worm in the (Big) Apple in this novel that fascinated me, and I wondered whether it might possibly escape our attention sometimes. Certainly, my reading was different this time.
Fionnuala wrote: ""when laid out methodically"You're a master of the methodical layout, Ian!"
Thanks, Fionnuala. I'm actually a methodical layabout ;)
Praveen wrote: "Wounderfull review......"Thanks, Praveen.
Garima wrote: "Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing? "Thanks, Garima. Sorry if I offended you. I was in a bit of a dilemma about the language of possessions and chattels that started to creep into my review, in support of the capitalist theme. I toyed with using the word "person" instead of "thing", but the point I was trying to make was that Gatsby craved nothing but Daisy, in the sense of he craved no material possessions, no state of mind and no person. In Gatsby's case, I was trying to use "thing" as a broader word than "object" or person. Even now, having looked, I can't think of a better synonym for what I was after. Any ideas?
Ian wrote: "Jonathan wrote: "Great review Ian, this is a novel I fully enjoyed studying in my literature classes of two years ago."Thanks, Jonathan. I'd love to read more about your views. It will also be in..."
I plan on a re-read as I look more into this whole idea of The Great American Dream. I'm yet to look into how Bill Clinton apparently framed it as: if you work hard and play by the rules you have a chance to get up in the world. I'm fascinated by that and the idea of: does Gatsby play fair? Does anyone really play fair in this novel? Or does their hubris and belief in changing the past come back to bite them?
I'm definitely interested in comparing film notes. I'm a little worried as Baz Lurman tends to be very bombastic and melodramatic and in no way is he generally very subtle but it might just work for this movie!
Ian wrote: "Garima wrote: "Daisy is the one thing for which Gatsby yearns. She is the one thing he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25. Thing? "Thanks, Garima..."
No offence taken! :)
And I got your point and no, I have no ideas either, hehe! but I'd have re-phrased the sentence like this:
Daisy is the only one for whom Gatsby yearns. She is the one he has sought after since he met and fell in love with her five years earlier at age 25
On one hand you have used 'she' and on the other hand 'thing' which looks kind of awkward, no? Just my stupid 2 cents.
These are good suggestions. The dilemma I have is that I was trying to say that she is just one of a set of he, she, they and it that he could have sought after. She is a singular out of a selection of plural. I wonder whether other languages deal with the issue better?
Excellent review Ian as ever.As for "The Great American Dream", it's all a question of interpretation.
I love Scott-Fitzgerald, have all of his books but I don't believe that this is his best; he lived in an "exotic" period of time. His jaunts into Paris with Zelda are so well documented but how much of this particular work was written under "the influence of drink"?
Does it take alcohol to bring out the essence of a man's writing? If so, well... And that makes me smile and reflect at this apparent contradiction.
I think yours and Nataliya's reviews cleared up a lot of things for me, Ian. For a long time, I couldn't quite understand why The Great Gatsby had been given the epithet of a Great American Novel and why it deserved a place alongside masterpieces such as The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird and Beloved and so on.
Next time I read it, hopefully I'll be able to see this classic in its true light.
"While the novel is perceived as hailing the Great American Dream, the paradox is that it highlights how great are the forces that are lined up to resist the efforts of a man who aspires to the Dream, especially if that man is a trespasser who covets another man's wife, even if he loves her and she loves him."
The above line especially makes a remarkable amount of sense.
Thank you for continuing to provide enlightenment as always. :)
Ian wrote: "She is a singular out of a selection of plural.That's a great line ;)
Garima wrote: "Ian wrote: "She is a singular out of a selection of plural.That's a great line ;)"
Haha, I was thinking of you when I said that ;)
Great review. You've got me thinking about the materialism at the heart American Dream (the matter of the the heart?). It's telling that Luhrmann's film sells itself on opulence. I think it would be interesting to contrast GG with Bellow's Augie March in terms of self-realization and the Dream.
I've read that Baz consulted the earlier version of the novel (Trimalchio), which is apparently darker. I think that beneath all the parties and glamour is a dark story, and it would be great to see a genuinely Noir film of it.I love your suggestion about Augie March. Let's do it.
Samadrita wrote: "I think yours and Nataliya's reviews cleared up a lot of things for me, Ian.."Thanks, Samadrita. Your review is still a very fair and generous reading.
Lynne wrote: "Excellent review Ian as ever.As for "The Great American Dream", it's all a question of interpretation..."
Thanks, Lynne. I'm not sure I understand your comments about interpretation and the influence of drink. What is your interpretation? Do you think the influence of drink shows in the writing?
We had a course where we analyzed this book from several different forms of criticism. The one that really caught me was the feminist critique (since we were discussing Kate Millett the other day). I have an essay (not by Millett though, can't think of her name now) somewhere, I'll dig it up, but it had this cool look at Daisy.Okay, found it. 'The background for the experience of disillusionment and betrayal revealed in the novel is the discovery of American, and Daisy's failure of Gatsby is symbolic of the failure of america to live up to the expectations in the imagination of the men who "discovered" it. America is female; to be American is male; and the quintessential American experience is betrayal by women.' Judith Fetterley is the author here. She talks about how tGG is about how men possess power by possessing Daisy and refers back to Millett's essays on Sexual Politics often.
I need to reread this one, but our professor had taught it as Nick being essential as a narrator because he mirrors Daisy's thoughts on the two men, and analyzed it as Nick was in love with Gatsby so while Gatsby experiences dissolutionment, Nick simultaneously experiences that through Gatsby. But a lot of his theory pinned on the scene that Fitzgerald cleverly disguises where Nick has a sexual relationship with an older man.
Anyways, felt I'd share these ideas to see your thoughts on them.
Most importantly, fantastic review. Very well done!
I'm glad we Americans have Fitzgerald-and now Ian-to figure it all out for us. And I agree totally with s.penfevich's remarks about Nick's sexual infatuation with Gatsby. The critics tie themselves into knots trying to explain that away!
Gary wrote: "I'm glad we Americans have Fitzgerald-and now Ian-to figure it all out for us. And I agree totally with s.penfevich's remarks about Nick's sexual infatuation with Gatsby...."Haha, thanks, Gary. It fascinates me that all but one of the films of TGG have been made by non-Americans, just as a film about a quintessential American (I Shot Andy Warhol) was made by a Canadian.
The problems of captialism apply equally here and in the UK, although we've not tended to deny the existence of class or status in our countries.
Old Money loved to fight off New Money, while the rest of us dance and look on from the sidelines, like it's a circus.
s.penkevich wrote: "We had a course where we analyzed this book from several different forms of criticism. The one that really caught me was the feminist critique (since we were discussing Kate Millett the other day)...."Thanks, spenke. This is a fascinating issue. I had wanted to say something about the triangulations in the plot, and this is one of them. At a persoanl level, Gatsby might have seen this as a betrayal in the last hours of his life. However, I don't see it as simply a woman betraying a man, or vice versa.
Daisy established at the end that she was not a mere prize for the men to fight over. She was actually just as much a player and a capitalist as the others. Like any business, she might have been a target for a takeover or merger, and she decided that it was in the best interests of the family wealth that she represented to stay with Tom.
This might be foreshadowed in Jordan, who is just as able to act in her interest and potentially deceive as any male/capitalist.
Nick was in a totally different league. A bond salesman, not an entrepreneur.
I'm not sure how much to make of the homosexual perspective. I've previously thought this might have been an issue, but I might have been influenced by the choice of actor to play Nick in the films.
Nick falls in and out of love with Gatsby throughout. Midway, he thinks they're all as bad as each other. By the end, he admires Gatsby as better than the rest, and he is disgusted by how the system dealt with him.
It's interesting that they all retreat to the mid-west, as if they can't handle the hyper-masculine business culture in the East.
Once again, the East expels those it doesn't want to the West.
Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?
Con McVeety wrote: "Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?"I swayed a bit through the book. It depends where the ball ends up resting for each of us. There's no rights or wrongs, only opinions. You've expressed yours well.
Ian wrote: "Con McVeety wrote: "Is it wrong of me to hate The Great Gatsby so much?"I swayed a bit through the book. It depends where the ball ends up resting for each of us. There's no rights or wrongs, onl..."
I'm surprised to see the penultimate sentence, even though I subscribe to it! But perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.
PS. That is a beautiful photo from the Telegraph. Do you need some special account for those?
Ted, I'm not sure what you're trying to imply. if you have followed my responses on GR, you will have learned that the only opinions I question are those that are offensive or gratuitous personal attacks on authors.
Nice review, Ian. I agree that Fitzgerald may have used more adverbs than we use today, but wouldn't you agree that his prose in Gatsby is so beautifully fluid? I think that is part of the book's seduction. Gertrude Stein complimented him on this book, something to the effect that he wrote so naturally in sentences.
Ian, you could make a fortune selling pre-written papers to lazy college students. Just putting that out there.(As always, this review is incredible. It has been more than a decade since I read this book and you have convinced me that I really need to do myself a favor and revisit it sooner rather than later.)
Usually it seems that a lot of reviewers on Goodreads (not you) have the opposite opinion, Ian. I was surprised that anyone would express the view (which I believe) that most of what is given here about books is largely personal opinion, personal like/dislike. When I said "perhaps I shouldn't be surprised" that was meant to indicate that I realized that your own views do not appear to be so rigid as some others views.
Wonderful response, I too tend to prefer it from the lens of capitalism, but I liked where Fetterley was going with the whole bit against how in that literary period, to be American was to be male and to experience it that way. I need to read Millett's Sexual Politics though, I feel like feminist critique is one that I'm not good at expressing and fear that no matter how hard I try to express it, I'm doomed to be wrong haha. I love the whole concept of viewing the relationships as mergers, that is brilliant!
What would Fitzgerald think of rap in the movie based on his book from the Jazz Age? For that matter what would he think of high society today? What whould he think of Jeresy Shore and the fact that less people read? Also why are novels,films and T.V. shows filled with adultery so popular and held in such high regard? someone at least answer the last question and name three great books, films, and T.V. shows that don't center on adultery.
Ted wrote: "Usually it seems that a lot of reviewers on Goodreads (not you) have the opposite opinion, Ian."Thanks, Ted. As you know, I have plenty of opinions, but I express them in open forum. I welcome contrary views in such a forum, and I assume that no one will oppose my right to express contrary views. I have recently been attributed with a few views that were ostensibly expressed in personal messages. Insofar as these attributions apply to me, they were not true.
Madeleine wrote: "Ian, you could make a fortune selling pre-written papers to lazy college students. Just putting that out there.."Haha. Thanks, Madeleine. It would be nice to make a fortune out of my opinions, but to be honest my main goal is to get readers into bed with a good book.
Once in bed, it's up to book and reader to do their own thing. I am no Cyrano.
Tom wrote: "Nice review, Ian. I agree that Fitzgerald may have used more adverbs than we use today."Thanks, Tom. I highlighted about three or four adverbial passages and hundreds of other passages that I loved. I was originally going to do a much more text-based review and discuss the beauty of the prose. Even the adverbial stuff was just being picky, it certainly flowed off the tongue beautifully, besides they were things that a person like Nick would say in real life.
If I ever wrote a novel, I would regard this as a model worth following. That's how highly I rate it.
s.penkevich wrote: "Wonderful response, I too tend to prefer it from the lens of capitalism, but I liked where Fetterley was going with the whole bit against how in that literary period, to be American was to be male ..."Thanks, spenke. I read a bit of her essay on Google Books and thought she made valid points. I guess I saw Daisy as less of a victim than Myrtle, while Jordan seemed to have the street smarts to get by in a competitive world. Notice the triangulation again.
s.penkevich wrote: "I need to read Millett's Sexual Politics"It's must read stuff. I read it a long time ago, and recently re-read the Miller critique. It's powerful, hard-hitting stuff. Nothing to fear, unless you're sensitive around the testicular region.
I suppose it does "both adulate and perpetuate the Great American Dream, while simultaneously subverting it", and yet it still feels relevant to a contemporary Brit who has no emotional investment in the concept. True skill.
Cecily wrote: "I suppose it does "both adulate and perpetuate the Great American Dream, while simultaneously subverting it", and yet it still feels relevant to a contemporary Brit who has no emotional investment ..."That's very much what I wanted to imply: that wherever we live and work, the aspirational aspects of capitalism have built-in limitations. They apply in Britain and Australia, although we are much more used to recognising class barriers than Americans.
Then again, I might be totally mistaken.
Wiki just reminded me that the Great Australian Dream is just to own your own home.
I can't find a wiki entry for British Dream.
Is it still to live in a welfare state, to be comfortably numb, to live in quiet desperation, and on a good day to beat the Aussies in the Ashes?
I recently read this book for the first time, and I have to say, the writing blew me away. It is some of the most casually observant writing I have ever read. What I mean by that is he mentions the way people move or act in an off-hand manner, but these little throw-away lines contain amazing unique insights into things people do or how people act. I want to read it many times over. The words are chosen as carefully as the words of a poem. It's quite a contrast to modern writing styles.
Another thing that was poetic was the way he used recurring themes- a particular one was dangerous driving. First he mentions Jordan Baker's dangerous driving, then the accident outside Gatsby's house, and finally the cataclysmic tragedy. Although these are not related to each other, I appreciated how he wove them in, a sign of a true master.
What wonderful comments, Kylie. You should put them in your review. I like the combination of casual and observant.
Thank you Ian. Perhaps I should write a review, although I doubt I have much to add to all the wonderful insights people have already expressed. However, it did occur to me just now that all the dangerous driving references might be a metaphor for the style of life this set was leading. Reckless and heedless and rolling over everyone else.
The problems occur when two careless people collide.
http://tinyurl.com/c57342u