Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. Comment on chapters as you read them. Gatsby is commonly considered the greatest American novel of the past hundred years or so; you can read it romantically or religiously, you can read it a la Freud or a la Marx, you can read it with an eye to race and eugenics or with an eye to suburbs and car culture, you can read it as being about class, about technology, about love (straight or gay, of course), and about dreams. Gatsby is the great novel of nearly everything--but especially of youth. It is ironic, it is heartfelt, it is simple and sophisticated at once, and almost everyone likes it. It is also an extraordinarily virtuosic prose performance. The book is written at a pitch of non-stop brilliance that has never been equaled. Enjoy.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Chapter 5

Funny and touching scenes! What did you like?  What didn't you understand?  What were your reactions?  Is the architecture of the book becoming clear?
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Chapter 4

What do you think?  Gatsby becomes even more intriguing!  How is Fitzgerald (or Nick, depending on how you look at it) choreographing the reader's experience?  What about Gatsby as a lens (what are we learning about Nick and others by the ways in which they see Gatsby?)?  What else?
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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Chapter 1

What do you think so far?

One thing that's going on is Fitzgerald's casually flashy writing.  Check out the way he creates, in the most offhand way, in a phrase, surreally heightened impressions.  What's your favorite turn of phrase?
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Chapter 2

The situation unfolds.  It's quite a party at Tom's love nest...
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