For Steve Silberman and Richard Ober. Garcia would have been 70 today, had he withstood the ravages he himself and the times inflicted on him. I’ve never been a huge Dead fan, but the sweetest of their music, such as this version of Peggy-O, is sweet indeed. As the person who posted it at YouTube said, “This […]
Continue reading →A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a strange convergence of the characters of Jay Gatsby and Bill Clinton. That post either created or revealed, I’m not sure which, another strange convergence, this one involving F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wrote Gatsby; my best friend, his five-year-old daughter, and his grandfather; and me. I […]
Continue reading →I’m re-reading The Great Gatsby, and even this fourth or fifth time, it gives a pleasure beyond anything I’d dare hope for. Fitzgerald, who apparently couldn’t control his drinking or much else in his life, exercises complete command here. He creates a sustained lyricism and economy rivaled in the last century only by Nabokov’s Lolita. […]
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