I decided it was time to read a book after having not appreciated a significant work of fiction for two-and-a-half years or so. It’s not that I stopped reading — I read quite a lot. However, it usually comes in the forms of websites, magazines, MSN windows, textbooks, and various other works of non-fiction.

I settled on an old favorite from Grade 12 AP English: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Let me just say that if you were required to read this book in high school and didn’t enjoy it (or have never read it), please do add it to your list of novels to read.

I finished reading it on Tuesday I believe, and enjoyed and appreciated it it much more than I did in high school. This time around I was not reading it with a deadline held to my temple, and am also at least slightly less naïve than I was back then. Both of these factors contributed to an interesting and thoughtful read.

Here is a quote of a feeling captured particularly well by Fitzgerald that I felt should be shared:

He smiled understandingly—much more than understandingly.  It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.  It faced—or seemed to face—the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor.  It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.

Another aspect that I found surprising compared to the first time was the development of Nick’s character. I think I glossed over this aspect originally, simply treating him as a narrator, and found the depth of his character to be intriguing and refreshing (given the shallowness of most of the other characters). I wondered if Nick’s character was Fitzgerald writing of himself and who he thinks he is.

I could probably go on for a while about other aspects of the novel (though it’s been a while since I’ve done a formal analysis and discussion as in English class), but I think I will leave it at that. I would again recommend that you read it, and then we could discuss it at a later date, perhaps over coffee?

Now, back to the books. I’ve two midterms in a week-and-a-half, and much to catch up on after missing 3 days worth of classes for Primal Instinct. Yeah!

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… and one fine morning —

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

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