Tag: book

“The Great Gatsby” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel about a man who accumulates all the wealth and possessions he could hope for but is still denied the one thing he so desperately seeks.

Nick Carraway a bond salesman from New York moves to West Egg (on Long Island South) where he meets his wealthy and mysterious neighbor Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, renowned for his parties where the whole upper-class enjoys themselves, is, if anything, a mystery. It is rumored that he has killed a man, has studied in Oxford and served in World War I, all of which turn out to be somewhat true or at least likely. Nick also meets  Daisy, his second cousin again, who is, not so happily anymore, married to Tom, a successful football player from Yale. After being invited by Gatsby to one of his parties he attends a few of them and realizes that no one seems to really know anything about Gatsby. More and more it becomes clear to Nick, that Gatsbys only goal is to become worthy of Daisy, whom he fell in love with before the War, and finally marry her.  In his sheer shyness he uses Nick to facilitate a reunion and Daisy seems to care for Gatsby, too. But things go sideways, Daisy, driving in Gatsbys fancy sport car accidentally runs over, what (ironically) turns out to be, her husbands affair. Wanting to protect her at any cost, Gatsby turns it into a hit and run, advising Daisy against admitting the accident and is later found out by the victims husband and shot. His funeral is attended only by Nick and some old man whom Nick once met wandering in Gatsbys library, none of his business partners, so called friends or benefactors of his parties come, not even Daisy.

Fascinating about this book is mostly the narrative, which only shows us Nicks personal, imperfect, often incomplete and biased view of he things and more precisely of the mystery that is Gatsby. It also shows the ungratefulness and falsehood of the people that enjoy Gatsbys hospitality.

5/5

“We The Living” - Ayn Rand

We The Living - Ayn Rand

Ayn Rands “We The Living” is about a young talented, freedom-loving woman living in the grim and repressive Soviet-Union, desperately and with all her might trying to preserve her love and her virtues.

Born as daughter of a once successful (his textile factory was seized and nationalize) industrialist, Kira the protagonist of the novel finds herself in the anti-burgoise environment of the Soviet-Russia of the nineteen-twenties, when returning (with her family) from exile to her hometown Petrograd. She starts pursuing an education as engineer aspiring to one day build skycrapers and bridges, knowing that she is meant for greatness. We then see the family’s decay as the conditions of living harden, greatly affecting her family, but leaving her semingly unimpressed, as she finds love in the freethinker (son of a Admiral who was on the wrong side in the revoution) Leo and meets her soulmate Andrei, a Communist and officer of the G.P.U (the secret police). As Leo falls ill with tuberculosis, Kria desperately tries to find a way to send him to a senatorium in the south, but fails due to the system, that does not value life. As a last resort she pretends to love Andrei (who fell in love with her) to get the money to save Leo. After his recovery Leo returns but is a changed man, he starts a business (as a so callled speculator) selling food stolen from the state with help of a corrupt Communist official. He and Kira slowly disunite as he also starts drinking and gambling, while Kira is trying to save money for their escape, knowing that it will not end well. But unlinke Leo, who has given up, Kira doesn’t and continues to believe in her dreams, sacrificing everything for them (best illustratet by the betrayal of her precious friendship with Andrei). As one of the revolutionist of the first days Andrei fits the longer the less into the party that has become a hoard of opportunistic beaurocrats only empt at improving their own profit and destroying lives, as he keeps on arguing his idealistic views he is kicked out of the party, discovering that Kria still loves only Leo he commits suicide. Having become emotionally numb Leo leaves Kira and Kira decides to leave the country, still pursuing her dreams with all her might. She dies very near the border, hit by a lucky shot of a guard.

I’m lucky that I haven’t written this review immediately after I’ve read the book, since the critique would have been slightly less appreciative, but I’ve had time to think about this book (and it does get you thinking) and some points I did not like now make me, in retrospect, enjoy the book even more. Firstly the portrayal of the living conditions is shocking and it gets to you, without being placative. Then there are the three most important characters of the book. Leo the attractive, first virtuous, but more and more disillusioned, and lastly broken man and one and only true love of Kira, then there is the idealistic, loyal and thoroughly respectful Andrei, Kiras soulmate despite their differing viewpoints. And then there is Kira the realistic but firm believer in her dreams and virtue, she fights the injustice of the system not by force but by not changing her beliefs and by an admirable endurability in the face of hopelessness. These three characters are what make this novel truly remarkable.

5/5

“The Golden Bowl” - Henry James

The Golden Bowl - Henry James

“The Golden Bowl”, in short, is about a young, naively innocent woman (Maggie Verver) and her rich father (Adam Verver) getting engaged (almost simultaneously) to two Italians (the prestigious Prince Amerigo and the staggeringly beautiful Charlotte Stant) who happen to have had a love affair (of which both father and daughter, of course, know nothing about), and their mingeled relationships.

Maggie (obvously having an Electra complex) neglects her Prince and spends a lot of time with her father, which leads to the Prince and Charlotte spending more time toghether (in lack of better companions) and finally starting an adulterous affair.

Maggie finally awakes from her naivety by finding out about the affair and starts reclaiming her marriage, by intrigating against Charlotte, seperating the Prince and Charlotte, and persuading her father to return to America (the story takes place in London) with his wife (Charlotte) thus also seperating herself and her father. The prince is quite taken by the new, matured, Maggie, and that’s where the book ends.

I can’t say, that I’ve enjoyed this book as much as I usually enjoy books, it certainly is well written and has an interesting style, which unfortunateyl makes it also quite hard to read. The plot is sometimes unexpected but the scope of the story is way to small for me, the implications seem quite limited, the book doesn’t open new horizons. (At least not for me.)

3/5