A story of excess and entitlement set in 1920s America.
review:
This novel tells a lot of story in under two hundred pages, sometimes it feels like the writing was rushed but that almost adds to the story. The story is well narrated by a likeable character and the novel really flushes out five characters (including the narrator) in it's under 200 pages (which I find amazing). The descriptive prose in the novel are beautiful and the story is fast paced. The main characters are well developed and the relationships between them makes you want to give them all advice (or smack them upside the head) at one point or another. Lots of drama. I recommend reading it to anyone who wants to see what life was like (for the very rich) in the 1920s or just wants an entertaining read on a rainy afternoon. I DO NOT view this as a great work of modern literature like it seems so many people do. Also ignore the sexism... it is upper class 1920's that is how they acted.
7/10
“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
“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 eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as 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.”
“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.”
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
“I wasn't actually in love, but I felt a sort of tender curiosity.”
If you enjoyed this I recommend:
Ernest Hemmingway - In Our Time
E M Forester - Howards End
Robert Penn Warren - All The King's Men
I agree, this book has been proclaimed widely as a must-read classic lately, but I think it fails to deliver any real insights. It is a good story, but not a great one, and at least for me it did not leave any lasting impression like so many good books do. This one doesn't resonate. If people want a modern classic about societal inequity that WILL make them think, read 'Animal Farm'. Which you should review :)
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