Gatsby

People keep reading my blog so I guess it's time I wrote another post for you all, in case you desert me. Reason for paucity of posts recently: my absence on a short five day break in Stornoway, more of which another time.

I've been re-reading The Great Gatsby this past week. I thought it was only right that I should re-read an American, having done a Russian last year. Some books just have to be read more than once, and Gatsby is definitely one of those. It's a masterpiece of the twentieth century. Every paragraph, is a gem. One of those books that has to be read slowly to savour every genius sentence.

It's a long long time since I first read it, so I'm finding things that I probably wouldn't have noticed first time round, such as the fact that Gatsby first met Daisy in Louisville, where in real life Fitzgerald met Zelda, which thirty years ago or however long it was, would have meant nothing to me, but now seems like a place I know, as my nephew Keith is now living and working there. And who incidentally got married to the lovely Trish yesterday, in Kentucky. Congratulations to you both. First wedding mentioned on my blog.

Gatsby was taken to Duluth by Cody to buy him some clothes suitable for life on his yacht. Dylan fans will know Duluth as the great man's birthplace, so quite  an important place in his story. Maybe some day I will visit, or again maybe not. Time running out, in so many ways.

There's a new movie being produced just now with DiCaprio playing Gatsby. I can't imagine that he will quite match up to the Robert Redford version, but should be interesting nevertheless. He just does not have Redford stunning good looks and neither is he such a great actor, but time is on his side. If you haven't read the book you should do so before seeing the movie. No movie can ever do justice to Fitzgerald's prose.

I will finish with a quote from the old man. Have you ever tried to describe a first kiss with a loved one? Here's Gatsby (Fitzgerald) describing the first time he kissed Daisy:

He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

Just heart stopping, although Nick, who is telling us this story, describes it as appalling sentimentality, which seems a bit harsh. But don't you just love that bit about waiting and listening to the tuning-fork struck upon a star, before he kisses her? Read the book nice and slow and enjoy.