The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is my favorite book. I think I’ve read it at least ten times. I loved it in high school and loved it even more in college when I wrote a paper comparing Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby–both working-class people, trying to work themselves up the social ladder, falling in love (Jay with Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle with Daisy’s husband Tom), and ultimately dying for their ambitions.

I love the passion and drive of the story. I love the focus on social class. And I love Nick Carroway–the quiet, observing narrator.

Dean and I watched Entourage last night. What got me thinking about Great Gatsby was the last episode of the last season of Entourage. The main character has been offered the role of Nick Carroway in a Scorsese film. It’s the last episode before the next season starts up. Then this morning at work, we were talking about all these deaths, Michael Jackson, Bernie Madoff getting 150 years in prison, Governor Sanford’s indiscretions.

My Associate Director shrugged, “You gotta stay under the radar. I see all these people in flashy cars in my neighborhood. What’s that about? It’s insanity. Lamborghini after Lamborghini zooming by on a Sunday afternoon. You know the very wealthy shop at Walmart? That’s the way to do it. Under the radar. I’m telling you.”

Thank God for the quiet observers.

I like the recession. I like living in a studio apartment with my fiance. I like composting food scraps. I don’t want a bachelorette party. I don’t want to stand in a store and stun-gun useless stuff for my home. I prefer people to contribute to my wedding for their own enjoyment…for an extra round of hors d’oeuvres, for another hour of an open bar. No family member or friend wants you to go into debt. Don’t believe in the status quo. Stay under the radar. Two of my friends eloped and now they have a home in the city. How about that?!

“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–“

God I love this book.