I really enjoyed this chapter. The only Fitzgerald book I've read is Gatsby, and I read that back in high school. I suspect that I missed 90 percent of the humor back then. Now that I'm 30 and reading my second Fitzgerald book, I think the missed-humor part is down to perhaps 15 percent, and that only because I'm not smart enough.
Halfway through the chapter I remembered that my e-reader lets me highlight sections. A few favorite lines:
"The invitation to Miss Myra St. Claire's bobbing party spent the morning in his coat pocket, where it had an intense physical affair with a dusty piece of peanut brittle..."And, describing Beatrice's driving:
"She looked left and right, she slipped cautiously into a speed of two miles an hour, beseeching Amory to act as sentinel; and at one busy crossing she made him get out and run ahead to signal her forward like a traffic policeman. Beatrice was what might be termed a careful driver."Awesome. So I've found the book to be very funny thus far, and the characters entertaining. The main thought I've had since reading it yesterday is how likeability factors into my interpretation of the book. I find Amory a likeable character, even though I'm all but certain I wouldn't like him if I met him in real life. In fact, as a reader I sort of feel sorry for him. Do you?
And it's clear this is a critique of the frivolities of the rich, at least in part, right?
I find humor in his description of Princeton as the country club of the Ivy Leagues. I think he's doing a nice job of capturing the world of people who go to elite boarding schools only to serve as their footstool to Ivy League Schools, and how not going to an Ivy League school doesn't seem to enter into anyone's mind.
What say you?
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