The Feminization of American Culture: Ann Douglas: 9780374525583: Amazon.com: Books

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

 > Gatsby is a marvel, but it's one small book.

While /Gatsby/ always appeared symbolically overloaded to me - "the 
green light at the end of the pier" and everything -, I consider /Tender 
is the Night/ to be one of the best American novels ever. Fitzgerald's 
skills do better unfold on the long distance. The rhythm, the experience 
of time. Here the author treats some of his basic themes like love, 
addiction and psychosis more convincingly than anywhere else in his 
work. And the book really breathes the Mediterranean aroma. Although I 
read the novel carefully several times, I still don't know how 
Fitzgerald manages to evoke that positive feeling in the reader (the 
tenderness the title mentions) until the very end despite everything - 
the second water-ski scene is simply heartbreaking - falling into 
pieces. It's really magic (I know no other word here). Together with 
/Gravity's Rainbow/ and /Moby Dick/ it's my favorite American novel.

What is it that you don't like about it?

On 01.10.2012 00:15, malignd at aol.com wrote:
> It's Faulkner for the 20th century; for the first half, in a rout. 
>  Hemingway wrote great stories (so did Faulkner) but only one great 
> novel, and that was his first.  Try to read Across the River and 
> Through the Trees without laughing.  Gatsby is a marvel, but it's one 
> small book. Kerouac?  Please ....
>

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