Great Gatsby

Thanks to the @waterstonescroy book group I have recently read Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby something I had avoided for many years. I went back to a girlfriend I had in my early 20's. She liked to tell how much she liked and knew of American fiction and films, and if I am being honest the interest was genuine. She loved both this book and the Robert Redford film version. 

I disliked the film and shunned the novel because I disliked what seemed to attract her. She seemed to be attracted to the world it portrayed, she loved the clothes and the idea of this world filled with parties. From what I could see it was a lot of disagreeable rich Americans being disagreeable. 

When it got chosen for the book group I did a bit of an inner groan, partly at the thought of having to read the book, but mostly recalling the less successful parts of that relationship. But hey, the book is pretty short.

What I discovered was a beautifully written story where the shimmering surface is only sunlight on the dark lake. I realised that I had been wrong. The book may be about a superficial world but that does not make it frivolous. The way the ugliness of the characters keeps bursting through that surface of style is incredibly powerful.

That people are holding Gatsby parties with the new film coming out is beyond satire.