First published in 1926. And has been drawn from ever since. The Great Gatsby This is a good start. Chapter 1 "In my younger and more vulnerable years myFirst published in 1926. And has been drawn from ever since. The Great Gatsby This is a good start. Chapter 1 "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.' "
And this is a good ending. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made . . . " "And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic 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 further . . . And one fine morning - So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past."...more
Misunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, SiMisunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, Simone de Beauvoir wrote this novella in her fifties. A simple story told plainly of a long married bourgeois sixty-year-old French couple on holiday in Moscow. Deceptively simple story that has depth. Confronting approaching old age, that takes a different environment with a different language and culture to reevaluate oneself and marriage partner objectively, both of them....more
Magnificent. Australian literature. Malouf's first novel, though one wouldn't know it. "Maybe in the end, even the lies we tell define us."Magnificent. Australian literature. Malouf's first novel, though one wouldn't know it. "Maybe in the end, even the lies we tell define us."...more
As I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhoAs I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhood. They can't smell their own bad breath.
