The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
For my first attempt at re-reading this since high school I went with the audiobook read by Tim Robbins. Really glad I chose this edition. Robbins has a unique soft inflection that really made this text interesting to me in a way reading the novel never did. Of course, I was a lot younger and the story didn’t speak to me at all. Why do they make teenagers read these books? The stories can’t hope to carry the weight they will later in life.
But in truth, I can’t say that the story really spoke to me now either. I enjoyed it, but I put felt no tug to start reading again after having taken a break. Part of reading almost strictly during commutes is the challenge of having something that beckons you to rejoin it as soon as possible. Having to break your reading up into one hour chunks provides an unusual and unintentional judging process. If I’m not eager to get to the next opportunity to read, finding extra opportunities to continue the story, then maybe it’s not that engaging after all. I’ve become much more selective this way, occasionally unfair, but then I’m reading for my enjoyment, so why stick with something if it’s not speaking to me.
I guess it was well written, but I can’t pretend to have found it interesting.