I am really curious to see the new "Great Gatsby" film is about to be released this week at the cinemas. I can't remember even watching the last version with Robert Redford but I have read the book recently which I felt didn't deserve it's reputation. From what I understand the book bombed when it was published in 1925 and only re-established itself in the American literally canon when the book was sent out to G I 's in the Second World War. This was largely due to the then nostagic aspect of the book as opposed to the fact that it captured the decadence of the era and was largely written as a critique of the shallow, conspicuous consumption of the times.
This book is much slimmer than I had anticipated and the story is pretty slight too. Whilst I think the writing is not bad, it is difficult to see this book as a classic albeit I can appreciate that American writing prior to it's publication didn't have the legacy or crebility of European literature. It is a bit "wordy" and , the biggest failing for me, didn't capture how I envisaged the 1920's to have been. As a defining book of the so-called "Jazz Age", what little jazz appears in the book seems limited to dance bands and an orchetra who appear to be performing something akin to Milhaud's "La creation du monde." The latest film appears to have ditched jazz altogether in favour of Beyonce and Jay-z.
I want to see this film but expect to be mre impressed by the vintage cars than the music or indeed the story.
This book is much slimmer than I had anticipated and the story is pretty slight too. Whilst I think the writing is not bad, it is difficult to see this book as a classic albeit I can appreciate that American writing prior to it's publication didn't have the legacy or crebility of European literature. It is a bit "wordy" and , the biggest failing for me, didn't capture how I envisaged the 1920's to have been. As a defining book of the so-called "Jazz Age", what little jazz appears in the book seems limited to dance bands and an orchetra who appear to be performing something akin to Milhaud's "La creation du monde." The latest film appears to have ditched jazz altogether in favour of Beyonce and Jay-z.
I want to see this film but expect to be mre impressed by the vintage cars than the music or indeed the story.
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