Took a walk on Friday listening to the
Radio 360 podcast about The Great Gatsby. It's pegged to the imminent release of a new film. From the podcast I learned that the book still sells 20,000 copies every few week, that Fitzgerald hated the title, that Ralph Lauren's real name is Lipschitz and his real life career echoed Gatsby's rise from poverty and anonymity and that every American novelist is allowed one official hometown. Extracts were read by the actor Scott Shepherd, who can recite the entire book from memory.
I came home and tried, for the umpteenth time, to read it. This time I succeeded. I still don't like the dialogue and there are whole scenes that I can't really visualise but I loved Nick Carraway's narration and I was determined to finish to get to the last couple of paras, which are as good an ending as I've ever read.
I am sitting here writing the commentary to a doc about the National, using the most straightforward language I can (it's the rules!) and you post this.
ReplyDeleteWatch out for some purple prose creeping in on Friday ("the jockeys battling against the current of history.......)
spoiler alert
ReplyDeleteAgreed. One of the most beautifully written endings to a novel, ever.
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