The Great Gatsby

It was too sultry to do anything else. They were waiting for the Cocktail Hour.

Why did they do anything? I think the point was that they were all people with nothing useful to do, so they just did...stuff.

Wasn't it always the cocktail hour for this crew?

It was The Plaza.

R4 it was set during prohibition so it was easier to get a hotel room than the right kind of speakeasy.

< I meant OP

They were the lost generation, so they didn't know where to go or what to do.

Maybe Tom wanted to have a confrontation with Gatsby but he couldn't in his home because the kid was there.

What do people plan?

I'm surprised Fitzgerald got away with having Daisy, driving back from Manhattan, hit and kill Tom's lover, Myrtle, by accident.

They want to have an orgy in manhattan

Wasn't their some vaguely non-credible subplot with that woman who played tennis/golf? What was the point of her being there. And Tom wanted to have a confrontation in another awkward location?

I "love" how great works of art are reduced to jokes on Family Guy.

They were bored.

Pointless people who do nothing are always bored, and restless.

They hate life and themselves and everyone else too. That's the problem when you are given everything in life and nothing is expected of you.

If a book was written today set in LA and some rich young people around 30 yrs old went into LA from ...somewhere nearby ...like The Valley - and went to some trendy hotel to hang out - would you question it?

This Great American Novel is loved for its prose rather than its plotting.

R16 This novel must have a pretty good plot - and characters - as well as fine prose, or people wouldn't be able to get through it. Instead, it's pretty gripping.

Oh, R17, were you "gripped" throughout that scene when they drive into Manhattan only to sit around in a sultry hotel room?

Air conditioning?

R18 No but I'm gripped by an irresistable impulse to tell you you're a snide little cunt.

First published 100 years ago today.

I don't understand why it's considered a timeless classic. It's a novel that describes its era beautifully, but the story is blah.

[quote]r10 I'm surprised Fitzgerald got away with having Daisy, driving back from Manhattan, hit and kill Tom's lover, Myrtle, by accident.

Excuse me…. SPOILER alert ! !

[quote]R12 Wasn't their some vaguely non-credible subplot with that woman who played tennis/golf? What was the point of her being there?

Jordan Baker - she’s there to provide a love interest for Tom. And to give him further insight into how Daisy’s crowd is shallow and shiftless (she cheats at golf)

It’s the olmly really good work Lois did—

[quote] Jordan Baker - she’s there to provide a love interest for Tom.

Don't you mean Nick?

I do [bold]: ([/bold]

(I don't really like that book all that much! Or even remember it, apparently!)

Possibly the greatest final line of any novel, ever.