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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
This book is exactly what it sounds like--about beautiful people who pretty much do nothing and as a result, to use a crude term, screw themselves. While I love novels in this time period, Fitzgerald weaves a picture so pathetic of the once rich and lazy couple that by the end of it, I just wanted them, to put it lightly, perish. Maybe that was the point. If so, well done, F.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
yes this book took me three months to read BUT it is fully annotated sooooo take that as you will
i really loved the gradual progression of how the characters spiraled into the mess that was themselves. i barely noticed how much worse they had gotten until they were at rock bottom, which was very interesting because i felt, just as gloria and anthony did, that they didn’t have THAT big of an issue. fitzy does this really well, but this is the best that i’ve seen it in his works.
however, gloria and anthony don’t feel REAL until they are at their worst. neither are particularly likable (that ENDING!!), the reader still feels bad for them - despite being so Like That, they are, at their cores, still very naïve and simple and didn’t understand the consequences of their actions, which makes them interesting to read about. there’s an interesting balance between resenting them for their personalities yet feeling for their problems.
the motif of the stamps was so good. that’s all.
also i really love how fitzy just changes into writing a play. it really gets me i love my funky little man.
really this book is at a solid 3.5 stars, but it settles on three just because the actual prose tends to drag on for long periods of time and while the plot is interesting, the book itself isn’t a very invigorating read and tends to lean towards “boring.”
i really loved the gradual progression of how the characters spiraled into the mess that was themselves. i barely noticed how much worse they had gotten until they were at rock bottom, which was very interesting because i felt, just as gloria and anthony did, that they didn’t have THAT big of an issue. fitzy does this really well, but this is the best that i’ve seen it in his works.
however, gloria and anthony don’t feel REAL until they are at their worst. neither are particularly likable (that ENDING!!), the reader still feels bad for them - despite being so Like That, they are, at their cores, still very naïve and simple and didn’t understand the consequences of their actions, which makes them interesting to read about. there’s an interesting balance between resenting them for their personalities yet feeling for their problems.
the motif of the stamps was so good. that’s all.
also i really love how fitzy just changes into writing a play. it really gets me i love my funky little man.
really this book is at a solid 3.5 stars, but it settles on three just because the actual prose tends to drag on for long periods of time and while the plot is interesting, the book itself isn’t a very invigorating read and tends to lean towards “boring.”
Fails to make significant the frivolous and banal, emotionally or thematically. Fitzgerald’s pen, hopelessly romantic, shallow in many ways, lends itself to a heightened reality—doomed romances and wistful nostalgia; icy beauty and ephemereal stardust; lost glory of youth both innocent and sinful—a playful mischief. But having to write pragmatically about actual relationships makes that pen of his most ineffectual. First book (or until they get married) is mostly good, everything after is mostly a bore (some good paragraphs notwithstanding), nearly 300 pages of feeble inheritance drama and the like. Though it does pick up a bit again at the camp (with a dalliance that is heavily reminiscent of that to Gatsby’s and Daisy's young trysts, and predictably Fitzgerald’s own). Reading a narrative where the endangerment of the riches of the idle rich serves as the chief component and propelling force is otherwise not fun or dramatically interesting. Sure, there is a thin irony to that corrosive pursuit of and blind faith in wealth as a means to happiness, but it fails me mostly as a baseline drama, and the melodramatic ambiguity of the ending feels like a hail mary. But hey, dude could really write; some incredible descriptions and romantic longings herein!
(Though perhaps my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt; if Roth’s assertion is to be held as a maxim, then I have failed in reading this novel 3.5 times.)
(Though perhaps my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt; if Roth’s assertion is to be held as a maxim, then I have failed in reading this novel 3.5 times.)
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
F. Scott Fitzgetrald is one of my favorite authors. I love the time frame he writes in, the characters, and his stories. This is my favorite book from him, its fantastic!
I love The Great Gatsby so much, my friend Haylee gave me this one to read (sorry if I spoiled the surprise syd!) as part of a ‘sisterhood of the traveling book’ thing my friend group is doing.
The back flap describes this as a great tragedy- and I agree. The two main characters seem to be settling when they end up together, simply because they love what the other has- money, beauty, status. This works against them throughout the book, forcing them to argue, become envious and eventually cheat.
The language of the book was a little hard to comprehend at times, forcing me to re-read a lot of pages, but I liked that it forced me to slow down because I tend to speed read my way through books. Nice pick, haylee!! can’t wait to see what I get next :’)
The back flap describes this as a great tragedy- and I agree. The two main characters seem to be settling when they end up together, simply because they love what the other has- money, beauty, status. This works against them throughout the book, forcing them to argue, become envious and eventually cheat.
The language of the book was a little hard to comprehend at times, forcing me to re-read a lot of pages, but I liked that it forced me to slow down because I tend to speed read my way through books. Nice pick, haylee!! can’t wait to see what I get next :’)
Well, our first book on this adventure for inspiring reading was a bust. We both have abandoned it. I think I went farther than Princess, but we both gave up. It was slow going and predictable. The characters lacked depth and were self-absorbed, which made for very UNinspiring reading.
Now on to the next book in our list.
Now on to the next book in our list.
"E questo mi ha insegnato che non si può avere niente, non si può avere assolutamente niente. Perché il desiderio inganna. È come un raggio di sole che guizza qua e là in una stanza. Si ferma e illumina un oggetto insignificante, e noi poveri sciocchi cerchiamo di afferrarlo: ma quando lo afferriamo il sole si sposta su qualcos'altro e la parte insignificante resta, ma lo splendore che l'ha resa desiderabile è scomparso.."