Whitney’s Reviews > Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby > Status Update
Whitney
is on page 266 of 399
After a weekend in "regions unmentionable because unknown," Zelda phoned the Kalmans at the Ritz. She "had some faint difficulty with the clerk," because she was so drunk: "I'm not sure that I told him my right name, but if I did, did you get word?"..."Scott informs me that I rode out of your room in a laundry wagon..." The letter concludes with twenty-two year old Zelda's remark: "O well! I was young once."
— Feb 14, 2019 06:15PM
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Whitney
is on page 335 of 399
(1939, Zelda had been living in a hospital, mentally ill. She and Scott still communicated frequently by letter. He would die in 1940. She would die in 1948)
(During one poignant letter, she wrote) Nothing could have survived our life.
— Feb 14, 2019 06:23PM
(During one poignant letter, she wrote) Nothing could have survived our life.
Whitney
is on page 253 of 399
(Scott and Zelda) Their life together was like a joint bank account, upon which only one of them could afford to draw.
— Feb 14, 2019 06:08PM
Whitney
is on page 214 of 399
The problem with unreliable narrators is that sometimes they tell the truth---it's just difficult to know when.
— Feb 14, 2019 06:05PM
Whitney
is on page 211 of 399
The 1926 film version of GATSBY has been lost; all that survive are a few newspaper clipping descriptions and the film's trailer, featuring party scenes...
— Feb 14, 2019 06:04PM
Whitney
is on page 205 of 399
He lay awake many nights in his hotel bed, and turned over restlessly and wondered what was the matter. In the early days of his success he had bought himself a dress-suit, thinking that he would soon have a chance to wear it (if invited to parties). But it still lay untouched in the box in which it had come from the tailor's.
— Feb 14, 2019 06:02PM
Whitney
is on page 204 of 399
"Dice, Brassknuckles and Guitar" is another tale of an outsider... who falls in love with a debutante. Attired in... bell-bottom trousers... he hits on a scheme for teaching society girls how to protect themselves using brass knuckles, how to play jazz guitar, and how to shoot craps.
— Feb 14, 2019 05:58PM
Whitney
is on page 199 of 399
Unlike fiction, reality has no obligation to be realistic.
— Feb 14, 2019 05:54PM
Whitney
is on page 191 of 399
Ring Lardner said there was no point in writing new commandments for women, as they would only break them. He recommended that all the women in the world be killed or sent to New Jersey.
— Feb 14, 2019 05:53PM
Whitney
is on page 183 of 399
In 1922 America did not have a national anthem... "The Star-Spangled Banner" was a candidate, but was meeting with violent opposition... its violent, unsingable cadences...had not been composed by an American; worse, it was a ribald, sensual drinking song...sprang from the lowest qualities of human sentiment. God forbids it.
— Feb 14, 2019 05:51PM
