The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Published: 1925

What They Say: In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic 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--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

What Elaine Says: This is one of my all time favourite novels and thanks to our lovely reviewer Sheli, I had a glorious new edition for Christmas.

I've read this novel countless times and it really is a masterpiece.  It's been described as 'the perfect novel' and while that is definitely debatable, it remains a piece of fiction to be admired.

Fitzgerald's writing is simplistic yet incredibly evocative.  Every word in this, very brief, novel has been chosen to develop the story as succinctly as possible, yet it remains a beautiful and damning portrait of  the American dream during the decadence of the 1920s. 

A masterpiece of storytelling, The Great Gatsby is not to be missed. 

Elaine's Rating: 10/10

Quotes:

“Ah," she cried, "you look so cool."
Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.
You always look so cool," she repeated.
She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw.”

Ulysses or Elaine vs Goliath

Author:  James Joyce


Published: 1922

What They Say: In the past, Ulysses has been labelled dirty, blasphemous, and even unreadable. None of these adjectives, however, do the slightest justice to the novel. To this day it remains the modernist masterpiece, in which the author takes both Celtic lyricism and vulgarity to splendid extremes. It is funny, sorrowful, and even (in a close-focus sort of way) suspenseful. And despite the exegetical industry that has sprung up in the last 75 years, Ulysses is also a compulsively readable book.

William Blake saw the universe in a grain of sand. Joyce saw it in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. Two characters, Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. We watch them teach, eat, stroll the streets, argue, and (in Bloom's case) masturbate. And thanks to the book's stream-of-consciousness technique--which suggests no mere stream but an impossibly deep, swift-running river--we're privy to their thoughts, emotions, and memories. The result? Almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion folds of a single day, which makes Ulysses not just an experimental work but the very last word in realism.

What Elaine Says: I did it.  I bloody did it!  A very large pat on the back for me.  I've conquered the behemoth. I've slew Goliath.  I jumped like Baumgartner.  OK so maybe not quite but what I have done is face and conquer my book nemesis, James Joyce's Ulysses. 

Why book nemesis you may ask?  Well, for a start ...

• This book is over 900 pages of modernist surrealism 
• The last chapter contains no punctuation as it's pure stream of consciousness yes
• I first bought this book when I was 15 years old (in an effort to impress my English teacher) and it has sat on my shelf since that day.  That's a period of *cough* 17 years *cough*

So after all that, was it worth it?  Well, in a word, YES.   This is not an easy read (and indeed in some sections, not even enjoyable) but it is undeniably a masterpiece.   It's dirty, yes.  Vulgar, yes.  Completely perplexing in parts, yes.  BUT it's also beautiful, lyrical, funny and human.

So why 9 stars and not 10?  Well that's purely down to the sheer effort of reading this book.  It is phenomenally difficult to follow in some parts.  Some of Joyce's literary and modernist allusions simply went over my head. That's my fault not Joyce's.  Also as this novel was 'experimental', and not all of it worked for me.  That one I'm blaming on Joyce.

I'm glad I read it and will definitely seek out some of Joyce's other (and shorter) works!

WARNING:  Buy an annotated version of this novel at your own risk!  You'll need strong wrists.  Kindle version highly recommended.

Elaine's Rating: 9/10

Quotes:

“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. But always meeting ourselves.” 

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