The Great Gatsby

As a part of my Back to the Classics challenge I have recently read The Great Gatsby.

I'm still trying to find out if I love or hate this book - it's an ambivalent relationship.

Let me illustrate...when I started reading it I spent the first 5 pages exclaiming:
why am I doing this to myself again? It is still not to late to stop reading.
But after 10 pages I was already caught completely up in the story.

And on one hand I didn't especially like the characters or the plot, but on the other hand I do not remember the last time a book left me so sad (and threw me into a post reading depression that lasted almost a month)

So I must conclude, while I didn't particularly like the story it still left a deep impact - but I guess that is what a good author can do. That is one thing I like about the book - it is really well written and gives a very good picture of  the Roaring Twenties.

The way it describes the life among the jet set and their everlasting search for new parties and amusement stroke me as very similar to the way many people live their life today - though it all happened 90 years ago. So I guess the themes are still relevant.

The thing I both like and dislike about "modern" classics is that they often focus less on making a plot and more on presenting themes and problems for us to think about. While I like stories that make me think after I put it down, I sometimes just want a good story I can lose myself in. If it also makes me think then all the better.

But I'll admit I look forward to going back to the "old" classics that describe a society and way of living long gone.
 

Literary quote of week 11

"The bar is in full swing and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other's names."

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

When I read this sentence in the book, I just had t stop and reread it a few times, for I think it perfectly captures the spirit of the whole book (and the whole time period) in just a few words.