Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston

Gatsby's Girl by Caroline Preston

This was originally posted on my original blog, AllisonWrites, on 6/12/2008.

I've wanted to read this since I saw it in bookstores two years ago (note: 2006?! Wow!). I have this thing though, about buying new copies of books by authors I'm not in love with. I'll buy dozens of used books I've never even heard of, but at $.50 a pop that's not a big deal. Also, since I'm a huge fan of paperbacks (so portable!) it's hard for me to justify shelling out $20+ for a hardback book.

I FINALLY got it from the library last week! And read it! And really liked it! I'm glad I didn't buy it in hardback (is that mean?) but it was enjoyable. My main issue was that I pretty much hated the main character. She's the stereotypical kind of girl I can't stand, and maybe that was the problem - she was a stereotype. But I find that a little hard to swallow since she was based on a real person. Fictionalized, yes, but based in fact. It was hard for me to feel anything for her, so the whole time I was reading I felt a little distanced from the story. But I fell in love with the main character's sister and, of course, F. Scott himself. So it was weird to be rooting against the main character of the book.

Some great lines:

"The soothing chatter of men and the smack of balls floated over from the seventh fairway."

Ok, I KNOW fairway means golf course, which means golf balls. But the way it was worded is questionable.

"The baby girl was bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes - just like me."

I know it means the baby looked like her, but doesn't it sound as if the mom is bald except for a fringe of black eyelashes?!

It seems like an editor shoulda-woulda-coulda caught those two sentences and re-worded them. There were a few other confusing sentences too that kind of jolted me out of the story with a giggle.

Some (actually) good lines too. It won't make much sense out of context (they're at a Hawaiian-themed costume party), but this made me laugh and re-read the whole scene.

"'But I'm keeping this,' he said, patting the scarf around his middle. 'The fringe will quiver when I tango.'"

"'What would have happened if I'd turned right instead of left, if I'd picked the writer instead of the aviator? I've always wondered.'" - THAT, ladies and gentlemen, gave me chills. After reading the whole story up to that point, I had been wondering the same thing. And when you sit and think about it, how all these little decisions add up to change your life... it's monumental.