Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Quote of the day

From Don Aucoin, in today's Globe:

"F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby is that rare classic that many people have actually read, often in high school English class. They may have a vague memory of flappers, and something about the American Dream and a green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock."

Sigh. Is that really how the hacks at the Globe see their audience in the Athens of America? "The rare classic that many people have actually read . . . a vague memory of flappers . . . something about the American dream??" This probably says more about journalists than it does about their readers - how and when do so many of them become such amiable philistines, I wonder?

And just btw, although admitting the longeurs of the first half, Aucoin says the second half of Gatz "is really something special." My spies, however, said . . . not so much, although most praised individual scenes. I don't think I'll be back. I've already dug out my old paperback.

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