Current read: The Great Gatsby

Until recently, the only memory I had of The Great Gatsby was listening to it on tape and falling asleep as my parents and I visited colleges during my senior year (sorry Mr. Burns). I found a used copy at a garage sale a few weeks ago and bought it for ten cents, along with about a dozen other classics that I've been meaning to read. Well, I tore through it the other weekend at the beach, and now I'm not surprised why so many call it their favorite book. Fitzgerald has an incredible gift for dialogue and for revealing so much in few words, and the characters are so beautifully and uniquely rendered.

As my friend Lauren said after I passed the book along to her, there's no question as to what time period the book takes place in. Of course, one of the most fun things about Gatsby is that it's set in the roaring 20s - always the decade I say I'd choose to live in. The bob haircuts, the mint juleps, the fabulous parties: what's not to love?


I adore these black and white stills from the original film, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Don't they make a beautiful couple? Word on the street is that Baz Luhrmann is filming a new version of The Great Gatsby as we speak. Anyone have more info on it?

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life... It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself."