So we beat on--

[trinityofone]

Today I am supposed to: write my Great Gatsby essay.

Today I have:

1) Managed a vague outline of my Great Gatsby essay while mostly looking over various bits of the book and sobbing, sobbing, because no book ever has or does move me like this one; it tears me apart and I am totally inadequate to the task of explaining why.

2) Eaten a sandwich.

But seriously, regarding 1)--I maintain and will continue to maintain that Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written, packing more into less than 200 pages than what others can manage in nearly 2,000 (and I have read War and Peace, so I know *g*). I cry every time I read it (and when I'm reviewing my notes to write an essay on it, apparently). Those of you who have read it: does it effect you in the same way? The class I'm writing the essay for is an American Lit class taught at an Irish university; the tutor has stressed that she thinks the novel highlights American themes--do you think that's true? I would say that the themes of Gatsby--trying to recapture the past, yearning to be known, loved--are universal. But then I am American, so I could be projecting. We do that.

What's your favorite book of all time? What book has moved you more than any other?

Comments

[smittywing.livejournal.com]

I have not read the Great Gatsby in years but I have to get a new copy before I do, because the one I have is going to go to pieces the second I turn past the first page. I agree that it's very American, not necessarily in the themes you cited, but in the way it presents them - through greed and laziness. Jay making himself rich to win Daisy's affections and the inherent ennui. (Of course I never dealt with Gatsby in a class. I read it in preparation for the AP English test and our teacher was having a difficult enough time just getting everyone to read Huck Finn.)

My favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird. Not, actually, for the Tom Robinson plot, although that's certainly very historically American, or for Boo Radley and his misunderstood existence. I have pitifully ovarian love for Atticus Finch trying to bring up his children "right" in a town that is not as educated or as idealistic as he is. It seems to be a book about what in life is worth fighting for and what can be let go.