The Great Gatsby

I was 50 minutes into the 1949 adaptation of The Great Gatsby when I said a little prayer;

“O dear lord. Pardon my condescending heart… But I feel sorry for people who dont read.” Especially when I read a book, and then I see its film adaptation.

But then, I found myself defending myself…. oh, how human of me… right?

I told myself; It’s not condescension… it’s the ache of someone who knows what the full feast tastes like and then watches others settle for crumbs.

When you read a book, you carry the author’s voice, the nuance, the internal worlds, and the slow bloom of meaning. A film, no matter how brilliant, can only give a slice of that. So when I  see an adaptation, I feel the gap. I see everything that was left behind… but I love films… so I keep doing this to myself… over and over again… how pathetic.
I guess I am not pitying them as people… I think I am grieving what they are missing out on.

I have always wanted to read The Great Gatsby.  Over the years, I found it was a common and popular material in western literature. 

Two reasons why I have never read it is one, I never did literature in my secondary school days, and two, The Great Gatsby isn’t a popular selection in the curriculum here in Nigeria.

I finally read it yesterday.  It was a lazy Sunday, and I chewed on it from morning, and by bedtime, I was done.

I was carried away by the beautiful way it was narrated and by the witty humor, so much that I didn’t even know when tragedy hit me. It was a complete shift.  A full 360 degrees.

I loved what F. Scott Fitzgerald did to me.

Do I wish I read it sooner? No. I think I read at the right moment of my life.

It was worth every page.

I spent most of my night reading reviews and literary analysis on this book… that’s how much I loved it.

For anyone who has read it, care to share anything with me?

Characters. Pic courtesy: Pinterest
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Author: Emaistace

wife, mom, sister, daughter, aunty, friend. writing my everyday thoughts as they pop up.

19 thoughts on “The Great Gatsby”

  1. Hello, I love how you used the analogy of a feast with the book and the crumbs with movie adaptations – and the books are truly almost always better.
    The book I love the most (besides the Bible) is Hugo’s Les Mis – and aytime I see a musical, mini-series, or movie based on the book – I have to watch noting all the things they missed. One time I saw the musical of Les Mis in Denver and got all teary eyed ten minutes into the musical.
    It was not because of the songs and acting – it was because I knew the back story of Fantine, and how she gave it up and becomes pregnant by Félix Tholomyès, a wealthy student, but he abandons her after their relationship ends – and then the hardship – and misery unfolds for her daughter Cosette – who then gets rescued – and so sometimes we bring the FEAST of info with us and it helps us enjoy the adaptations
    🙂

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      1. Hello – warning that the book is super long – and can get really tiring – I first read the abridged edition in High School – and loved it so much it captured my heart!
        andsome folks like the movie where Claire Danes portrayed Cosette in the 1998 adaptation of Les Misérables
        and the 2018 BBC miniseries, which is a six-episode adaptation, by Andrew Davies, is really good (still not the book, but a better adapatation)
        xxx

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    1. Just like I said in my comment on the link you shared, I had you on my mind when I read this book. Next on my list is the Agatha Christie you recently reviewed.

      “I particularly loved your remark;
      We are kept engaged from the opening sentences, through the shocking surprise, to the carefully controlled closure.”

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  5. Beautiful Peace mummy, your analogy is beautiful and soothes perfectly. It’s crazy how I tried selling this same idea to a friend this evening, I tried making her see how wholesome reading a book before watching the movie adaptation is, I’ll read this next definitely, thank you for the push

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  6. So true, about books and adaptations.
    I’m currently watching the series House of David and I keep going back and forth wondering about the additions in order to give the series a captivating story and bring it to life, some are beautiful because they most likely could have occurred but others are completely unnecessary.

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