The Great Gatsby

I read the first chapter of the book in a series of fits and starts. To me, it felt like a heavy Albatross, struggling to take flight, it's legs struggling to start the take off run and not altogether successfully.

And then, a wondrous thing happened: we're airborne! And this bird flies with the sure and easy grace of a Starling. This incandescent book is so utterly beautiful that as I read along, I realize with something close to despair that I will never write as good as this. This book is genius captured and distilled.

Further, I am filled with a mixture of disappointment and elation. Disappointment because I hadn't read this superlative work of F. Scott Fitzgerald's before, and elation at finally finding it. It is going to be a staple of my library—I'm going to search for a hardcover version and snap it up, stat. A true sui generis of fiction.

John Truby has a precis of The Great Gatsby that has to be read to be believed. It is magnificent and irradiates my very mind with breath and vitality. Read this article for a singular analysis of the story and watch if you don't agree with Truby why this is The Great American Story.