"The Gatsby Gambit" by Claire Anderson Wheeler

I picked this up at the library on an absolute whim, and it ended up being exactly the book I needed to read last week.

The Gatsby Gambit is kind of an alternate universe retelling of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In this world, Jay Gatsby has a kid sister and is friends with Tom and Daisy Buchanan.  The kind of friends that are randomly staying at his mansion for a few weeks in the summer while their own mansion across the water is having some renovations done.  

Jay, the Buchanans, Nick Carraway, and Jordan Baker all come across is slightly nicer versions of themselves from Fitzgerald's book.  Daisy and Jordan have the ability to be kind if they want to.  Jay is a little less aloof and a little less unbelievable... and it feels comfortable to call him 'Jay' and not 'Gatsby.'  I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can't figure out another way to say it.  I think of this Jay Gatsby as Jay, and I think of the original Jay Gatsby as Gatsby. Nick Carraway is very similar to his original self, though maybe a bit more patient.  And Tom Buchanan is... still a lout.  Still a womanizer.  Still a self-satisfied snob.  

As for Jay's little sister Greta Gatsby, she is a delight from beginning to end.  She's all finished with finishing schools at last and ready to step out into the adult world, only she discovers that having been screened and sheltered from the adult world maybe wasn't so entirely bad after all.  Because the adults in her world are not always up to good things.  Sometimes, the ones she loves most are behaving very badly indeed, and she had just been unaware.  And others might have the kinds of dark secrets in their past that come to light violently and permanently.

All in all, this is a stylish and smart murder mystery tangled up in a coming-of-age story, Roaring Twenties-style.  The historical details were fabulous, the characters were sharply believable, and the book never felt like it was capitalizing on the fame of a classic so much as exploring a "what if?" in a natural and fun way.  It explores issues of the day such as classism, ableism, and sexism without pouring too much of our modern mores into the mix, and also deftly scrutinizes cruelty, infidelity, family, and romance.

Particularly Good Bits:

Sometimes she felt--oh, it was such a tricky thing to put into words!--this suspicion that the world was not quite the world she read about.  That she was still being... protected from things.  Not by Jay exactly, not by anyone in particular, but by some invisible, insidious buffer (p. 30).

Ladies, certainly, were not supposed to question things.  Ladylike meant gracious, and gracious meant accepting (p. 85).

"She wanted everyone to think she was happy; she wanted to look happy.  That was something she knew how to do much better than actually being happy.  Poor old Daise has been told how to look and what to feel for so long, I think sometimes she hardly knows how to locate a feeling of her own" (p. 96).

"I never wanted to marry a romantic.  They're dangerous.  They fall out of love with you the minute you turn out to be human, and then they blame you for being a disappointment" (p. 15).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for a lot of veiled discussion of adultery and sexual activity, some period-appropriate bad language here and there, murder, and one person's memory of something violent happening in the past.

"A Rose in West Egg" by Storm Shultz

This book was such a fast, fun read!  I love stories where people get to go inside a book and experience it a little bit, whether it's the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde or even movies like Austenland where a person is only kind of pretending to mimic an experience from a book.  Or even the movie Inkheart, where things and people from books get out into the real world.

In A Rose in West Egg, a librarian named Rose has always wanted to go on some kind of big adventure.  Not that she doesn't love her life as a librarian, but she's shy and lonely and a bit bored.  Also, she has alopecia and often worries she will never find a guy who doesn't care that she wears wigs.  

During a big library party to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rose ends up accidentally sliding inside the book itself.  She narrowly escapes getting murdered, meets a handsome but irritable detective who's hunting a serial killer, and finally finds her way back out of the book.

And if you're saying to yourself, "I've read The Great Gatsby... what serial killer?!?" then you are realizing what Rose realized, that there is something wrong going on inside the book, and she might be the only one who can fix things because she's from the real world.  And besides, if she goes back inside the book, she might meet up with that nice detective again...

This was a total treat for me as a lover of literature.  Rose has a fresh, upbeat, and softly quirky personality that made me like her so much.  And I really liked the message of needing to share the Good News of God's love and forgiveness to all people, including those who do not want to hear it at all.

I'll definitely be rereading this fun book!  I'll be adding the paperback to my shelves as soon as it releases.  Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.  I was not asked to provide a review, positive or otherwise.  All opinions here are my own, and freely given.

Particularly Good Bits: 

He smells like cedar soap and something comforting that I can't place yet.  I relax a little.  I mean, would a murderer smell like cedarwood?  Possibly, I suppose.  I don't think stores ban crazy people from buying nice soap.

"It's not failing to ask for help."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some mild violence, alcohol use and abuse in the Gatsby world, scenes where an old woman is injured and then taken to the hospital, discussions of murders, and mental illness that results in violence.  No smut or bad language.

"Riviera Gold" by Laurie R. King

It seems like, for the last few years, I've been loving every-other-one of Laurie R. King's novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.  I loved Garment of Shadows, liked Dreaming Spies pretty well, loved The Murder of Mary Russell, and liked Island of the Mad kind of okay.  I'm happy to announce that Riviera Gold continues this pattern -- I loved it!  It's one I will add to my bookshelf at some point, for sure.

This adventure finds Mary Russell cruising up to Monte Carlo with a bunch of friends, but without her husband, who is sleuthing elsewhere.  Although she appears to be in this just for the fun of learning to sail a yacht, she's actually tracking down Mrs. Hudson, who memorably departed Sussex in The Murder of Mary Russell.  

Russell finds Mrs. Hudson all right, and also a whole lot of trouble.  Smugglers, arms dealers, thieves, swindlers, and many actually nice people rub elbows with each other, and with Russell and Holmes.  Actually nice people including people called Scotty and Zelda and Dos.

And, yes, that's F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitgerald, and John Dos Passos.  They don't appear in this book as much as Cole and Linda Porter did in Island of the Mad, but since I'm a Fitzgerald fan (this blog is named after a line of his, after all), I definitely enjoyed seeing them crop up.

Anyway, I was worried at first that Sherlock Holmes wasn't going to be in this book much, since he was off on another case, but he joined Russell before long.  My favorite parts of this series are usually when they're working together, and this book proved no exception.  They did pursue different clues and work on separate angles of the case, but were a team nonetheless.  

Adding this to my listing of all King's Russell/Holmes books in order of favoriteness:

1. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (book 1)
2. The Game (book 7)
3. The Murder of Mary Russell (book 14)
4. O Jerusalem (book 5)
5. Garment of Shadows (book 12)
6. Riviera Gold (book 16)
7. Pirate King (book 11)
8. Locked Rooms (book 8)
9. Dreaming Spies (book 13)
10. Justice Hall (book 6)
11. The God of the Hive (book 10)
12. The Language of Bees (book 9)
13. The Moor (book 4)
14. A Monstrous Regiment of Women (book 2)
15. Island of the Mad (book 15)
16. A Letter of Mary (book 3)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, peril, murder, and a little bad language.

Top Ten Tuesday: Crystal Ball

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Books On My TBR I Predict Will Be 5-Star Reads."  I'm tweaking that a bit so it reflects my TBR shelves in particular.  I suspect I'm going to love:

1.  By-Line by Ernest Hemingway
2.  Crossfire Trail by Louis L'Amour
3.  Dear Readers and Riders by Marguerite Henry
4.  Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott
5.  My Lost City by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6.  North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
7.  On Stories by C. S. Lewis
8.  The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery
9.  Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
10.  Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

(A favorite reading spot in our home, from my Instagram.)

How about you?  What books in your future are you expecting to love?  And have you read any of these?

The Taylor Swift Book Tag

I am not actually a fan of Taylor Swift.  I'm not exactly anti-Taylor either, I just... enjoy a few of her songs if they pop up on the radio, but have never listened to a full album or really bothered to learn the lyrics to any of her stuff.

Be that as it may, I saw this super-cute tag on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness a while back and felt like answering it myself, so here goes!  Book titles linked to my reviews where applicable.

1. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”: a book/series you thought you’d love but ended up disliking

I quit reading Kathy Reichs' books because they got too repetitive.  But I own all twelve seasons of Bones, the TV show based on them.  Go figure.  (TBH, it's all David Boreanaz' fault.)

2. “Red”: a book with a red cover

I have a wonderful old copy of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe that is bright red and I love it.

(All book photos in this post are mine from Instagram)

3. “The Best Day”: a book that makes you feel nostalgic

I can't read The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King without remembering both the Wisconsin library where I first found it and also a bunch of Veggie Tales silly songs that my first toddler loved -- I would let him watch ten minutes of silly songs on YouTube every day, and I'd read while he watched.  It was often my only chance to read at that time, and so... I clung to it, rereading favorite books in tiny chunks with Bob and Larry in the background.

4. “Love Story”: a book with forbidden love

Speak Easy, Speak Love has several love stories, and most of them are not forbidden.  But the love between John, who is Italian, and Maggie, who is black, is absolutely not acceptable in the 1920s.  And they're two of my favorite characters, and watching them struggle against their own fears and the prejudices of their society is just... so good.  Love that book.  (How could I not?  It's a Much Ado About Nothing retelling!)

5. “I Knew You Were Trouble”: a bad character you can’t help but love

A lot of people seem very appalled that I love Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, but how can I NOT love that damaged, flawed, sad, lonely man?  And he's not totally bad -- he does reform and repent and change and grow.

6. “Innocent”: a book/series someone ruined for you

I'm not sure I've got anything for this.  I don't know that anyone else has ever ruined a book for me.  What kind of a person would do that?

Oh, some person in my life has literally wrecked my physical copies of books, that's true.  But that didn't ruin the story for me, just that particular copy.

7. “Everything Has Changed”: a character who goes through extensive character development

Um, all good characters?  Okay, to pick one I haven't talked about yet, Edmund Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.  He goes from a simple, uneducated sailor to a man of great learning and exquisite taste; from being consumed with the desire for revenge to an understanding of how ruinous vengeance can be.

8. “You Belong With Me”: your most-anticipated book release

Of Literature and Lattes, Katherine Reay's upcoming follow-up to The Printed Letter Bookshop.

9. “Forever and Always”: your favorite book couple

Valency Stirling and Barney Snaith from The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  Both of them are intelligent, quirky, introverted, quiet, secretive, wonderful people, and I love them fiercely.

10. “Come Back . . . Be Here”: the book you would be least likely to lend out

My autographed copy of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Ain't happening.

11. “Teardrops On My Guitar”: a book that made you cry

Many books make me cry.  Most recently, I was finishing reading Caddie Woodlawn aloud to my kids, and I cried over the part where their dog comes back.

12. “Shake It Off”: a book you love that other people hate

Hmm.  Maybe The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald?  I know a lot of people aren't into that one.

13. “Stay Stay Stay”: a book you wished could go on forever

Well, I was so reluctant to leave the world of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society the first time I read it, I just flipped back to the beginning and started it all over again.

14. “All Too Well”: a series you wished could go on forever

The Sherlock Holmes canon.  It could be four times as long and I'd be ecstatic. That's why I read so many pastiches.  I NEED more!

15. “Ronan”: a book with a tragic character death/death of an innocent

Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery.  If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.  if you haven't... I'm not spoiling it for you here.

16. “Out of the Woods”: a book that had you worried about the characters up to the very end

Even though I've read it a dozen or more times, I still worry about Ponyboy and everyone else in The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton the whole book through.

17. “Getaway Car”: a book with a tempestuous romance

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen certainly qualifies for that, I think.  

18. “Clean”: a book that taught you something profound

A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh taught me many things about woman's innate need to create, the importance of alone time, and so on.

19. “Long Live”: a book that transports you every time

The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle never fails to whisk me away to windswept moors.

That's all, folks!  If you had fun with this, feel free to snag it for your own use.  Not tagging anyone today.

"Speak Easy, Speak Love" by McKelle George (again)

This is the perfect summer read.  Breezy and witty, filled with summer's sunshine and shadows, and crammed with characters I adore.  Lots of substance, but also lots of fun.

I mean, that's my personal definition of a perfect summer read, anyway.

I reviewed this pretty fully last year when I first read it, so if you want to know more about the plot, you can read about that in my other review.  This post is going to be more about gushing about all the things I love.

First of all, it's a retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, which is my other favorite of his plays.  So I obviously dig seeing all the ways George draws on that.  The characters share names and personality traits with the ones in the play, except for John, who is one of my favorites here, while I cannot stand Don John in the play.  George changes a lot of things, but in ways that suit the story and serve the characters.  This isn't a straight-up retelling, but more like a jazz riff, so it totally works.

Then there's the setting.  I'm not sure why I dig the Roaring Twenties so much, but I do.  Maybe it's all the juicy, meaty stories it provides, with Prohibition and Women's Suffrage and Jazz and people trying to forget The Great War... I don't know.  But I really love reading books set in that era.  Big part of why I enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald so much. 

This book often makes me think of The Great Gatsby because it has some outward similarities:  young writer observing people, lots of parties at a big house with illegal liquor flowing freely, and so much glitz and glamour masking unhappiness.  But the people in this are so utterly different than the ones in Gatsby.  They all have moral centers, for one thing.  While they do all have dreams they're chasing, they're also all willing to give up a dream if need be, not fruitlessly cling to it.  And nobody engages in any adultery.

Anyway!  The whole story centers around a failing, genteel speakeasy called Hey Nonny Nonny.  It's run by Hero Stahr, her depressed father, her jazz-singer friend Maggie, and virtual orphan Pedro "Prince" Morello.  Hero's cousin Beatrice gets kicked out of school and arrives on their doorstep at the same time as Hero's friend Benedick and his rich pal Claude run away from prep school and arrive there too.  Together with Pedro's half-brother John, they set about trying to save Hey Nonny Nonny from slowly tottering into extinction, but also work toward their own futures.

Did I mention that all of these characters, except Hero's dad, are in their late teens, just finishing high school?  They seem more like college students, to be honest, but I cut the story a little slack here because these are teens from a hundred years ago, when people matured faster and were expected to behave as adults much sooner than they are now.

So.  I love this book.  If you're looking for something fun but also meaty to read this summer, find it!

(From my Bookstagramming)

Particularly Good Bits:

Words.
What a tricky, tangled science (p. 92).

Family was family, but you didn't always do more than politely stand each other when it came to things like fun and conversation (p. 216).

Benedick sat up, bone tired but mind still crisp as a cold apple (p. 303).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for some violence, lots of alcohol consumption by adults and minors, some innuendo (kissing and some mildly suggestive dialog), and bad language.

The Bibliophile Sweater Tag

I wasn't tagged with this specifically -- I found it at The Book Hound, and RM Lutz tagged anyone who wanted to steal it, so... here I am, stealing the tag.  Like a year after it was posted.  Because that is exactly what my life is like right now.

I'm not just busy these days, I am STUPID BUSY.  Like, so busy it makes me stupid sometimes.  I hate it.  I need to unload something from my pile of life, but every time I try, something else jumps on the haywagon and I'm overloaded again.  GRR.  ARGH.

Anyway, here are the rules of the tag, which I am merrily disregarding because... I can.  (Just like I'm ignoring my laundry today...)

1. Give the person who tagged you an endless supply of cookies. (If I knew where she lived, I would.)
2. Answer the questions and use the blog graphic. (Check.)
3. Pass along the tag. (If you want to steal this from me, go ahead.)
4. Wear a sweater. (I only own one sweater, and while it's been cold-ish here again lately, I really don't want to wear it.  I don't like sweaters.)

Fuzzy Sweater -- The Epitome of Comfort

I turn to Rex Stout's mysteries starring Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe whenever I need cheering up.  They always do the trick.  I've collected all of them over the years, but only read about a third so far.  They get their own shelf in my library -- all the ones to the right of the Nero Wolfe Cookbook are the ones I've read and the ones to the left of it are the ones I haven't gotten to yet.

Striped Sweater -- A Book You Devoured Every Line Of

I can't help inhaling The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery when I read it.  I simply can't read it slowly!  I chomp my way through it as quickly as possible because it's soooooooooo delicious.

Ugly Christmas Sweater -- Book with a Weird Cover

I took a pretty picture of it for #AustenInAugust on Instagram, but this copy of Persuasion by Jane Austen has a very weird cover.  Look at the person on the cover!  I assume it's supposed to be Anne Elliot, but WHAT is going on with her clothes?  Her butt seriously cannot be that huge, and bustles weren't a thing during the Regency, so why is this even on this cover?  The more I look at it, the more it bothers me.

Cashmere Sweater -- Most-Expensive Book

I just ordered a used copy of My Lost City: Personal Essays 1920-1940 by F. Scott Fitzgerald on Amazon for $29.95.  I am CRAZY excited about this!  This is probably not the most money I've ever spent on one book, but it's close, cuz I buy a lot of my books used.  But the reason I'm putting it here (and the reason I'm excited) is that used copies of this book usually go for between $70 and $200.  I've been wanting to read this book for ages and ages, but cost prohibited me.  Well, thanks to meandering around my Amazon wish list yesterday, I saw that there was an affordable copy on offer and snatched it up.  I should get it this weekend.  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hoodie -- Favorite Classic

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte... but you probably knew that already.  If you've been reading my blogs for more than like a month, anyway.  I even led a read-along of it a couple years ago.

Cardigan -- Book Purchased on Impulse

I'm not a big impulse buyer for books UNLESS I'm at a library book sale or yard sale where books are only a dollar.  This is why I have such high ratings for books on Goodreads -- I don't read books I don't already know something about and think I'll like.  I don't have time to read all the books I WILL like, so why waste my very limited time on books I know I won't?  

But anyway.  I bought Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle at the library's semi-annual book sale last year, not knowing anything about it except what the cover told me, namely that it's a mystery that involves coffee and takes place around Christmas.  It's been languishing on my TBR bookcase in the basement ever since.  I'm hoping to read it this winter.

Turtleneck Sweater -- Book from Your Childhood

The Black Stallion by Walter Farley was my favorite book from age 7 until I was in my early 30s and finally admitted to myself that I like Jane Eyre and The Count of Monte Cristo better.  It's still my 3rd-favorite book, though.  HUGE part of my childhood.  I used to spend so much time imagining I was Alec Ramsay, marooned on an island, with a horse for my best friend.  Days and days and days living in that world in my head, while my parents just saw me doing my schoolwork and chores.

I re-read The Black Stallion as an adult a few years ago, and while I now can see that much of it is wildly implausable and hinges on massive coincidences... I don't care.  At all.  I still adore it.  And to be honest, my other two favorite books have lots of coincidences in them too.  I don't mind coincidences!

(I read 3 or 4 of the other books in the series and they were meh, in my humble childhood opinion.)

Homemade Knitted Sweater -- Indie Book

Getting so excited for the release of Soldier On by Vanessa Rasanen at the end of October!  I got to read an ARC of it to review for Sister, Daughter, Mother, Wife, and my review will be out in a few weeks!  I'll post about it here too, don't worry.  This book is fantastic -- meaty and deep and about so many of the hard things in life... but the good things, too.

V-neck Sweater -- A Book that Didn't Meet Your Expectations

Longbourn by Jo Baker.  Do yourself a favor and don't read it if you're a fan of Pride and Prejudice and want to keep liking Austen's characters.  Calling it a disappointment is a dire understatement.

Argyle Sweater -- Book with a Weird Format

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which is told in overlapping circles, like the stories are ripples in a pond, intersecting and widening and changing all the time.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I wrapped my head around the non-linear storytelling, I really dug it.

Polka Dot Sweater -- A Book with Well-Rounded Characters

Middlemarch by George Eliot is breathtaking when it comes to fantastically deep characterizations.

That's all, folks!  Happy autumn to all of you :-)  I'm not tagging anyone with this, so if you want to play, then play!

My Ten Favorite Books of 2017

As is my wont, I've compiled a list of the ten books I liked best of all the ones I read this year.  You can read my previous years' lists here: 2016, 2015, and 2014.  (I do a similar thing with movies, and my 2017 list for those is here on my other blog.)

I read and reviewed 56 books this year, plus I know I read a couple more that I never got around to reviewing.  I've split this list into two parts, as usual -- those I've read before and those that were new to me.  

These are in alphabetical order because I don't feel like getting them into a favoritey sort of order.  Titles are linked to my reviews.  Here we go!

New to Me

As You Wish by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden -- I got to see The Princess Bride (1987) on the big screen thanks to TCM and Fathom Events this fall, so it felt like the perfect time to finally read Elwes' memoir about the filming.  I want to own a copy.

The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay -- I liked it, then I was frustrated by it, then I liked it again, and by the end, I loved it.  Currently vying with A Portrait of Emily Price for the distinction of being my favorite Katherine Reay book.

Every Frenchman Has One by Olivia de Havilland -- hilarious, heart-warming, and adorable.

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis -- even better than I expected.

A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley -- one of the funniest fiction books I read all year!

The Story People by Heather Kaufman -- sweet and charming.  I've already pre-ordered Kaufman's next book, Loving Isaac.

The Usurper's Throne by Charity Bishop -- engrossing and thrilling.  I can't wait for the next book.

Re-reads

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler -- my favorite author, what more can I say?

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien -- Enchanting as always -- this was my seventh time reading it.  (Though we're only about halfway through it for the read-along, I started it back in August for my niece's lit class, so I'm done reading it already.)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- I like this on better every time I read it.


How about you?  What wonderful books did you discover or re-read in 2017?

"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler

I always have a terrible problem when reading Raymond Chandler.  I want to zip through to the end because his mysteries are so gripping, but at the same time, I want to read them slowly so I can savor his writing.  I want to pause and relish the flavor of his words, roll them around in my head, revel in their distinctive wonder.  But I also want desperately to know what happens next.  Even though I've read all his novels and short stories before and vaguely remember how they go, I still get sucked straight into them.

The Big Sleep is the first thing by Raymond Chandler I ever read.  I read it in high school, in a collection of "great mysteries" that my parents had on a high shelf in our basement.  That collection was also my first introduction to Leslie Chartris' Simon Templar and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and I devoured the collection secretly, stealing time to read between school assignments.  (I probably could have finished high school in two years if I hadn't done this sort of thing all the time.)

I have to admit, the first time I read this, around the age of 17, I just zipped through it and on to the next book in the collection.  I liked the noir feel of it, I knew Philip Marlowe was a famous detective, and I knew there was a movie version of this starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that I'd been wanting to see for a while.  But I didn't exactly savor and relish and revel in the words.  Not yet. But eventually, I wised up.

What draws me to Chandler's novels, besides the perfect, unexpected, gleaming writing?  It's not the plots -- this one is twisted, yet thin, and Chandler himself admitted he had no idea who killed that poor chauffeur.  Nope, it's Philip Marlowe himself.  You know I have to want to be friends with the characters in a book if I'm going to love the book, and that is 100% the case here.  I would love to befriend Philip Marlowe.  He could use a good friend.  He's such a complex guy -- such a brilliant mix of cynicism and hope.  He has no faith in people, but he wishes that he did.  He's in a dirty business, but he's not a dirty guy.  As Chandler said in an essay about hardboiled mysteries, "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."  That's Marlowe all over -- not mean, not afraid, and not tarnished by all the foul things he has to investigate, encounter, and do.  Man alive, I love that guy.  I once named a camera after him, actually.

And that's what separates Chandler from my other two favorite writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.  I admire all three of them for the way they write, but I also love what Chandler writes, whereas Fitzgerald and Hemingway's stories are generally not things I love.  (Yes, I'm the same person who just led a read-along of The Great Gatsby.  I don't love Gatsby, but I do enjoy that one, at least.  I enjoy a couple of Hemingway's too.)  Interesting that they were all writing in the early part of the 20th century.

I suppose I should mention what the plot of The Big Sleep is.  Well, there's this old millionaire with two badly behaved daughters.  He hires Marlowe to figure out who's blackmailing him about some gambling debts one of the daughters incurred.  But really he wants to know if his ex-son-in-law is behind it.  By the time Marlowe solves things, he'll have to deal with pornographers, murderers, extortionists, gamblers, and those wayward daughters.  All handled in a remarkably tasteful way, really.  Except for his homophobia -- that's not tasteful, but it's also not surprising given this was written in the 1930s.  Many modern readers would find it shocking, I'm sure.  Much as I love Marlowe, I admit he's not perfect.  He wouldn't be realistic if he was.

Particularly Good Bits:

Under the thinning fog the surf curled and creamed, almost without sound, like a thought trying to form itself on the edge of consciousness (p. 150).

I was as empty of life as a scarecrow's pockets (p. 159).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  A hard PG-13 for sexual matter handled in a non-explicit way, bad language, and violence.

I know a lot of people don't consider Chandler's books to be classics.  I do.  I think we'll be reading and marveling over them for hundreds of years, long after we've forgotten who lesser crime fiction authors ever were.  And I'm not just saying that out of loyalty to him because he's my favorite author -- I really think he's that good.  So this is my 11th book read and reviewed for my second go-round with The Classics Club.

This is also my 7th book read and reviewed for the Adventure of Reading Challenge hosted by Heidi Pekarek.

"Careless People" by Sarah Churchwell

I started reading this during my read-along for The Great Gatsby because it's all about what was going on in F. Scott Fitzgerald's life and the world around him while he was writing, editing, and publishing Gatsby.  I didn't have time in June to finish it because it was much more intensive and engrossing than I was expecting.  I thought I'd skim through it for the more salient points, but nope, I had to read the whole thing.  It was too good to skim!

The subtitle of this book, "Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of the Great Gatsby," refers to what is called the Hall-Mills murder case, a real-life unsolved murder in New Jersey that took place in 1922 right about the same time Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald moved to New York City for a time.  The case was huge news, and Fitzgerald certainly read about it in the papers, for Churchwell found instances where he referred to it in correspondence and so on.  The two murder victims were having an extra-marital affair with each other that bears some resemblance to Tom Buchanan's affair with Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby, and Churchwell draws out many similarities between the cases, making the point that it may have influenced Fitzgerald as he came up with the ideas behind Gatsby.

But the book is about much more than that.  Churchwell also delves deeply into Gatsby and the themes of wealth, power, and social class.  She shows the world around Fitzgerald that he was trying to capture and the many things and people that influenced him as a writer.  Then she goes on to discuss the critical and popular reception of The Great Gatsby and how perceptions of it changed over the years.  There's way more in this book than I can discuss here, so I just want to touch on two things Churchwell discussed about Gatsby that really interested me.

First, I was fascinated by the parallels she drew between the characters of Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby.  I had not noticed them until this, but now they're so obvious I don't see how I missed them.  Churchwell succinctly says, "[Myrtle] wants what Daisy has.  Myrtle is the mirror image of Gatsby, who wants what Tom  has.  They are both upstarts, trying to foist themselves upon high society, poseurs who lead double lives (p. 67).  Myrtle does a lot of the same things he does -- wants power and position and money, tries to get a better life for herself, throws parties, runs around with a married person, and insists on believing her lover will change her life.  So fascinating.

Second, Churchwill points out this interesting tidbit: "When Tom realizes that Gatsby wants to supplant him, he gives Gatsby precisely what he thought he wanted: Gatsby is put in Tom's place, taking the fall for both Buchanans' crimes, Daisy's careless driving and Tom's affair with Myrtle" (p. 281-82).  Whoa.  I kind of sensed that before, but never saw it so clearly until now.

This book as a whole has increased my appreciation for Fitzgerald's writing, and I definitely recommend it if you're a fan of his, or of The Great Gatsby.

Particularly Good Bits:

Their story would prove that if you make yourself up, you can be undone, as well: being self-made risks unraveling (p. xxi).

A nation so fixed on progress will always be pulled, Nick begins to see, back into nostalgia, reaching for what lies ahead yet longing for what lies behind (p. 257).

Gatsby hangs suspended between chasing the future and longing for the past: the present means nothing to him.  But Daisy is defined by the present.  She needs immediacy, for she dwells in the shallows of time, drifting unrestfully and without purpose from moment to moment (p. 272).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for discussions of alcohol abuse, violence, and sexual topics in a non-explicit way.

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (again)

I know I've spent nine whole posts nattering on about this book, delving into all the things I find interesting or odd or cool or confusing.  But I'd like to do one final post to put down a few of my final thoughts on the book as a whole.

Why do I like this book?  I didn't like it the first time I read it.  I admired it the second time.  But this time through, yes, I liked it.  Quite a lot, really.  Which is odd, because I don't really want to be friends with any of the characters, and that's what usually makes me like or love a book.  That's probably what keeps me from quite loving it. 

I realized while reading this that I am drawn to a specific sort of tragedy.  I only truly like tragedies that feel inevitable to me.  That don't give me a sense of, "Oh, if only the main character weren't being so stupid, this wouldn't have happened."  This is part of why I love Hamlet, but not King Lear or MacBeth or Othello -- I can't point at Hamlet and say, "If only he hadn't been so stupid, none of this would have happened."  If only King Lear hadn't been so blind to his daughters' true natures.  If only MacBeth hadn't been so power-hungry.  If only Othello hadn't been so insecure.  But, like with Hamlet, I don't think I can point at Gatsby and say, "If only he hadn't been so stupid."  Sure, he dreamed a dream that couldn't come true.  Sure, he was into some illegal stuff.  But the events in this are like an inevitable catastrophe, a natural disaster we can't stop, we just have to watch.

I'm not sure if I explained that well or not -- it's something I'm still turning over in my mind.

I also realized that I want to rescue Gatsby.  I want to just hop into this book and grab Jay Gatsby by one arm, Nick Carraway by the other, and say, "Boys, let's go to California for a few weeks and let things here just cool down and blow away for a while."  (I have a similar wish to whisk Hamlet away back to Wittenberg at the beginning of the play.)  So, in that sense, I do want to be a part of the story.  And I do wish I could prevent the tragedy.  

The writing in this book still astonishes me with its vibrant, gauzy beauty.  Fitzgerald is amazing.

Somebody asked me why I think this book is worth reading.  Such a good question.  All kinds of bad stuff happens in this, from lying to adultery to manslaughter to murder.  There's some bad language.  Why read it? 

To me, it's worth reading because it is a very poignant meditation on what it means to lose a dream.  We all have dreams.  We all have illusions.  And I think this book shows how important it is for us to recognize what is real and what can never be real.  If we get so wrapped up in how we imagine life should be or could be, we run the risk of jeopardizing the people around us, our own lives even, in pursuit of something that isn't even real.  

And yet, the message of this book isn't "Stop dreaming."  Not at all.  I think the message is that we need to be careful not to mistake our dreams for reality.  That we need to be able to separate fact from fiction, to know what is and isn't possible.  Dream, but be careful as you pursue your dream.  Don't lose sight of what is while you're chasing what might be.

There's all kinds of other stuff going on in this, about class disparity and rich versus poor and East versus West, but I went into that a lot in the read-along and don't feel like repeating it. 

I've already listed off dozens of favorite lines during the read-along, so today I'll skip posting favorite lines.  I have many of them, so very many.

If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for alcohol use, a traumatic death, implied sexual activity, extramarital affairs, and some language.

This is my tenth book read and reviewed for my second go-round with the Classics Club.

Great Gatsby Read-Along: Chapter IX

After Gatsby dies, people go right on making up crazy stuff about him.  Nick says most of the reports about his murder were "a nightmare -- grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue" (p. 173).  That sounds just like all the stories people told about him at his parties, doesn't it?  But somehow, it's kind of fitting, isn't it?  James Gatz made up Jay Gatsby, so why shouldn't other people make up their own stories about him?  Kind of that "what goes around comes around" vibe.

I'm rather proud of Nick in this chapter.  He's probably proud of himself as well -- the only one who stuck by Gatsby with "that intense personal interest to which everyone has some vague right at the end" (p. 174).  Well, I'm glad Gatsby had Nick, at least.  

I'm very interested by Nick imagining that Gatsby tells him he "can't go through this alone" (p. 175).  Gatsby went through almost his whole life alone, or feeling alone, anyway.  Didn't fit in with his parents, didn't fit in with Daisy's world, didn't fit in with his own partygoers -- he was always alone, even in those crowds.  

Nick seems to generally think well of people, doesn't he?  He's quite sure Wolfshiem will come to the funeral, that Daisy will at least send flowers -- and again and again, people disappoint him.  No wonder he's a little cynical two years later as he writes this down.  Gatsby's not the only one who had illusions stripped away from him.

Nick goes through some interesting stages in this chapter.  First, he feels "responsible" (p. 174) for taking care of Gatsby's funeral arrangements.  Then he begins to have "a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all" (p. 176).  And when people keep giving excuses for why they can't come to the funeral, he feels "a certain shame for Gatsby" (p. 180) because no one cares about him anymore.

And then there's Gatsby's dad, Henry Gatz.  Oh, I feel sorry for him.  And I'm rather proud of Gatsby -- his father says that Gatsby went home to see him and bought him a house a couple of years ago.  I'd forgotten that.  I thought that he left home and never looked back, but obviously he cared enough about his family to go provide them with a house once he was wealthy.  Good boy, Gatsby.  Was he also doing that to show off how rich he was?  Sure, but it was still kind of him.  It sounds like he'd been supporting them too, that "ever since he made a success he was very generous" (p. 183) toward him.

As for Gatsby's final father-figure, the man who "raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter" (p. 182), Wolfsheim remains wolfish to the end, doesn't he?  Refusing to be involved in Gatsby's funeral in any way.  Nice guy, that Wolfsheim.

Oh, that issue of how many clothes you have pops up one more time!  Wolfsheim says that when he first met Gatsby, he "was so hard up he had to keep on wearing his uniform because he couldn't buy some regular clothes" (p. 181).  Yeah, the millions of shirts makes more and more sense, doesn't it?

I like Nick's musings at the end on how where you're born makes a difference in where you belong.  He says that "Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (p. 187).  While I thought of Daisy and Jordan as Southerners, they certainly weren't from the east coast (and where was Tom from, anyway?  Chicago?).  This interested me very much, because I am from the Middle West (as Nick calls it) myself, and I lived in Connecticut for three years as an adult -- we moved there when Sam was 2 months old -- and I never, ever felt like I belonged there.  I was not a bit sad to move away, and that's unusual for me.  I guess I was subtly unadaptable to Eastern life too.

I think Nick grew up a lot over the course of that summer, don't you?  He didn't have the guts or determination to break off his relationship with the girl he left behind when he came east.  But he goes and makes his break permanent from Jordan.  I'm intrigued by her final remarks.  She says, "I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person.  I thought that was your secret pride" (p. 189).  Hang it all, I still think he's honest and straightforward -- and I think his making sure Jordan knows they're finished only increases that.  On the other hand, he never went forward and told the cops that it was Daisy who killed Myrtle, so maybe that's what Jordan's talking about?  Did she perhaps want Daisy to have to take responsibility for her actions at long last?

I definitely agree with Jordan about Nick's secret pride, though -- he's rather enjoyed looking down his nose at the shenanigans of everyone around him, hasn't he.  And he continues doing so, telling Tom off about siccing Wilson on Gatsby.

And here we are at the end.  I don't have anything wonderful to say about the book's final lines.  They're amazing and give me goosebumps, those last couple of paragraphs, but that's about all I have to say about that.  

Thanks so much for joining in this read-along, everyone!  I've really enjoyed drinking up the beauty and splendid sadness of this book, and sharing thoughts with you all.  I've learned quite a bit from you too, which is my favorite part of read-alongs :-)  This afternoon, I'll be starting up a giveaway to celebrate our completing the book, so be sure to watch for that.

Favorite Lines:

"Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead" (p. 182-83).

I wanted to leave things in order and not just trust that obliging and indifferent sea to sweep my refuse away (p. 188).

There was nothing I could say, except the one unutterable fact that it wasn't true (p. 190).

He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.  He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark field of the republic rolled on under the night (p. 192).

Possible Discussion Questions:

What do you think of James Gatz's childhood resolutions and daily regimen?  Do you think he stuck to those?  His father says he "always had some resolves like this or something" (p. 184).  Do you think he had them as an adult too, to help him on his quest to reclaim Daisy?

Speaking of quests, I've never read Don Quixote, but I've seen a movie version and know the basic gist of the story.  Do you think Quixote and Gatsby have any similarities?

Great Gatsby Read-Along: Chapter VIII

As I write this post, I am treating myself to a moonshine truffle bar from the Chocolate Moonshine Co. in honor of Jay Gatsby.  Supposedly, this truffle bar has real moonshine in it.  Supposedly, Gatsby made money selling moonshine.  It's all good.  Especially the chocolate, which I have to say is WAY better than actual moonshine.  Which I have also had, and not the stuff they sell in gift shops along the interstate in Appalachia, but real white lightning that was confiscated from an illegal still.  It was like what I imagine swallowing acid would be like.  Tasteless, odorless, clear as water -- and how it burned! 

Actually, this chocolate kind of tastes the way Fitzgerald's words feel in my mouth -- rich and smooth, with a little edge to it.

Anyway!  

I really don't know how to write about this chapter.  It kinda breaks my heart, in a fictional way.  I've realized over the past couple of days that I feel very protective of Jay Gatsby -- I want to jump into this book and rescue him from himself and everything else.  I get this way sometimes, especially in relation to seemingly powerful male characters, which sounds wacky, but it's true.  I want to go save Jay Gatsby.  But I can't.  As Nick says, "'Jay Gatsby' had broken up like glass against Tom's hard malice" (p. 157).  

So we learn some hard things in this chapter, as Gatsby's dream slips through his fingers for good.  We learn Daisy was the first "nice" girl he'd ever known, and that "many men had already loved Daisy" (p. 158), whether from a distance or physically, I'm not sure.  We learn Jay "took" Daisy five years ago, "took her because he had no real right to touch her hand" (p. 158).  I want to shake my head at them, but I'm too sad over this chapter to bother.

Interesting that, having made love to Daisy, Jay feels as if he's "committed himself to the following of a grail" (p. 158), even feels as if he's married to her.  All the expected reactions to Daisy and Jay getting intimate are backwards -- we expect the girl to feel as if they're married, or should get married, and to feel shy, maybe even betrayed.  But when they meet again, "it was Gatsby who was breathless, who was, somehow, betrayed" (p. 159).  Because even back then, Daisy was rather heartless, I guess.  Heartless and remote, untouchable even though she's been touched.  She's the one who used him, not the other way around.  

There's a line there that I hadn't remembered.  Nick says that "Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of  many clothes" (p. 159 -- emphasis mine).  That explains the shirts, doesn't it?  He grew up poor, only having maybe one or two sets of clothes, living in the same ones day after day after day.  He told Nick exactly how many new shirts and pairs of trousers old Dan Cody gave him when he signed on to help sail the yacht.  Now that he's rich, he revels in never wearing the same shirt twice.  It's ALL about the money and class, all of it.  That's why he had to show them off to Daisy, I think -- to prove to her he's reached her level.  He has the freshness of many clothes now.

Then Nick leaves.  And he gives Gatsby a compliment, and he says he's glad he did because he'd never given him another one.  Why?  Because Nick "disapproved of him from beginning to end" (p. 164).  I'm so intrigued by this!  And I don't know what to make of it.  Nick pretty clearly idolizes Gatsby -- I mean, he's writing down this whole story to memorialize him, in a way.  He idolized Gatsby, but he disapproved of Gatsby.  He disapproved of Tom and Daisy and Myrtle too, but we get that really clearly.  Do we get a sense throughout the book that he disapproves of Gatsby?  Or is Nick here trying to convince himself -- and us -- that he disapproved of him?  I don't even know!!!  I want to hear your thoughts.

But I suppose we ought to talk about Wilson a bit.  I'm always so moved by his speech about telling Myrtle that she can fool Wilson, but not God, and he's gesturing toward the billboard with the giant eyes.  They say there's truth in advertising... maybe sometimes advertisements can even inadvertently inspire people to realize true things?

Last thing.  I've always wondered if Gatsby was considering committing suicide by drowning himself.  Has that occurred to anyone else?  He's never used that pool all summer, but he decides to use it now.  I feel like maybe he decided to hang out in the pool until he lost all hope of Daisy ever calling him, and then, if he wanted, he could just slide off his inflatable raft thing and never resurface.

Favorite Lines:

He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn't bear to shake him free (p. 157).

At the grey tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor (p. 160).

Possible Discussion Questions:

What do you think Gatsby meant when he said, "In any case, it was just personal" (p. 162)?

Nick says that Gatsby "paid a high price for living too long with a single dream" (p. 172).  Do you think that was Gatsby's real problem, that he couldn't let go of a dream and find a new one?  Or that he only had one instead of several?