Reviews and Comments

I freely admit that what finally got me to read this after so long was an article in The New York Times where it is described as a 'quick read' at barely 200 pages and possible to get through in an afternoon. I did not use an entire afternoon, but had a few evenings and therefore found myself reading about Jay Gatsby for the first time at the centenary of his emergence.

My first thought was that the book is quite funnier than I'd imagined. Fitzgerald loves to throw in lines for Nick Carraway that capture the silliness that surrounds him. This made the book a far more amusing read than I had anticipated and helped keep my interest throughout.

As a story, The Great Gatsby is terribly straightforward. There's little in the way of ingenuity per se, and it is the characters, their setting, the culture that surrounds them, and the choices they make that serve as the real interest of the novel. Hindsight also aids in this regard as Nick becomes a 'bond man' like so others in New York City and from this vantage point, that seems like a fatalistic choice given what happened at the end of the decade. Not before Nick gives it up, but it gives the novel an extra sheen of cluelessness that has only become brighter as the years go by.

None of the characters particularly appealed to me. Yes, Gatsby is the most interesting but then his intrigue is half the point of the whole book. Everyone else is quite two-dimensional either interested in money, or the trappings of it. There's so little given to their motivations and thoughts its kind of frustrating. (That said, there is a scene towards the end where Fitzgerald brilliantly, and through only describing the physical scene, shares what Daisy and Tom are thinking.)

I can see why it's a favourite of schools. It's short, has a simple enough story, and embodies enough themes that can be related to by young readers otherwise ignorant of the world. Is that the sum of its worthiness in the literary world? I don't think so, but I don't think the Great Gatsby is near the paragon of 20th century literature, or even Jazz Age literature for that matter.

Overall, three stars for being amusing enough to read straight through, but really, this is just a book to check off your list.

This book took a while to get into but in a good way (ultimately). We're thrown a couple of characters in Amelia, Rebecca, et al and I found myself not getting much in the way of interest until more things started happening and the character traits started to emerge. I'll admit, Becky Sharp is (as you might expect) the least ambiguous of the lot, but it took to near the end to finally figure out Amelia and the very end before it finally twigged that every character is a part of the 'vanity fair'; nobody lies outside of it, or even escapes!

Some people don't seem to like the back and forth nature of the story, but I found it helped break things up. So when I was just getting tired of reading about Emmy's banal woes, things switched to the tumultuous Becky and her escapades. Thackery's narrator helped with a feeling of consistency too. He's unreliable of course, but willing to amuse at the same time.

I did quite enjoy the satirical depiction of the upper classes. Nothing like a bit of gawking at your supposed 'betters' and realising they are just the same, only with more money, and alcohol.

The downsides include the usual old British colonialism, and more than a hint of anti-Irish sentiment. Although the latter is unsurprising given that Thackery was the prominent writer behind 'Punch' magazine's repugnant content with regard to Ireland and the Irish.

Overall, it's clear why this is a classic, and Becky Sharp is the primary reason why. Such a tenacious, ambitious, scheming woman can't help but attain a grudging respect from readers. Without her the book would be intolerably flat and lifeless. So while we can certainly begrudge her motivations and actions, we can't begrudge her worth to the other characters, and the story. Vanity Fair is well worth a read.

This was an interesting book from the standpoint of social conventions in upper crust society at the turn of the 20th century. Undine Spragg is very much the antihero leaving a trail of destruction in her wake as she crawls up the social ladder marriage by marriage. One wonders whether Meghan Markle should have read it before becoming entangled in the British royal family given the subject matter.

It's a bit hard to relate to so much of the novel partly because it's over a hundred years old, but also because I am not of the New York elite and therefore unfamiliar, even baffled by some of the social aspects of the story. Having to have your mother respond first before you can seems bizarre and so when Undine breaks some of these rules, it is difficult to appreciate the effect it should have on the reader.

One of the main thrusts of the story is that then, as now, money is seen as a cure for all ailments, real and psychological. Undine's constant need for more coupled with the limitations she comes up against make for a relevant argument against rampant consumerism. A somewhat novelty at the time, it remains a potent point today, and it isn't hard to read between the lines as Wharton skewers beliefs and actions she saw as vulgar and reflecting the emptiness of the people involved.

Rather straight and to the point, Wharton's writing style reflects the serialised nature of the book as it was first published but it never wearies the reader.

Overall, 'The Custom of the Country' is worth a read and it's prompted me to add more Wharton books to the reading list.

I liked this book even if I did not, per se, 'enjoy' it. Charles Dickens was correct to demand the title be 'North and South' because to have called it simply 'Margaret Hale' would be a disservice to the story, and the reader. By far. it's the themes of the story that rise above the characters in it. Conflicts between the urban and rural, rich and poor, male and female, and indeed, north and south provide the overarching sky under which things take place and without which, the story would not stand out amongst its contemporaries.

I cannot say that I liked the characters in 'North and South' as much as I did Gaskell's other work, 'Cranford', but their various interactions gave the story a much needed conflict and friction.

It's perhaps hard from the 21st century vantage to appreciate the dramatic crisis of faith Mr. Hale undergoes that gets the ball rolling. Yet it is not hard to appreciate the various trials and tribulations that everyone within his orbit must undergo by way of collateral damage. Margaret Hale therefore is a commendable protagonist who shoulders everything as best she can while maintaining her dignity.

Like many Victorian novels, I found the ending not so much too good to be true, but, shall we say, unsurprising. It also brought the novel's great themes to a crashing halt and we are left to wonder what happened afterward.

Overall, 'North and South' is a historical book that can help place modern times in the right context. Disparity of wealth and power, geography and people, all seeming so shamefully current are, in such a light, neither so new or so uncommon. While we have moved beyond the 19th century in so many ways, in many others, we have never budged. Reading 'North and South' is a good reminder of that.

I started Finnegans Wake knowing only a few things. Namely that it was not a traditional novel, that it was incredibly difficult to read, and that it confounded many (if not all) who did. I certainly agree that it is not a traditional novel, and that is clear from page 1! I do not agree that it is difficult to read, or that it is particularly confounding. It is, however, difficult to comprehend, and that's by design.

What struck me almost straight away is that this is Joyce having fun with language. Puns and double meanings abound. An early one describes a drink as a 'foamous ale', i.e. 'famous ale' but throwing in the common description of ale as 'foamy' or 'foaming' into the same phrase. I very quickly realised that there was going to be a lot of this in the book and I was not proved wrong! Every word is so clearly intentional in its placement and spelling!

Joyce described Finnegans Wake as being 'about the night', and I think that's a wonderful description because it alludes to the infinite number of interpretations that can be made out of it, as we each could our own, individual, night of sleep. He takes us on an adventure into the unknown before returning to reality only to start all over again. I can't describe the anticipation of seeing how the ending would line up with the beginning (as I knew the first and last sentence were one and the same).

The one thing that really helped me in reading the book was the notion that there is something funny on every single page. Sometimes it produced a smirk, but often it produced a good laugh. Joyce could be said to have a wicked sense of humour and that is plain to see here. What the funny thing is is for you to find, and the notion of a continual treasure hunt kept me going when I so often felt fatigued.

The one complaint I have is that Joyce crammed so much (SO much) into every single page, line, sentence, and word, that you simply cannot skim. You have to read with concentration. At one point I was having to convince myself that I had to get through just five pages a day. It was hard to get the kind of rhythm going that you usually do with book. Of course, when even one page packs more into it than most bestsellers do over hundreds of pages, it's kinda forgivable that taking your time is necessary.

Overall, Finnegans Wake is my new favourite book. NOT my new favourite novel, but by far my favourite book as I can see myself coming back to it again and again and again and never ever failing to uncover some new and delightful discovery.