"At some point in high school, a usually supercilious teacher stands in front of a group of highly suggestive students and holds up a copy of The Great Gatsby waxing poetic about how it is such a marvelous masterpiece.

And—make no mistake—it is. After the eager, young students read The Great Gatsby, the inevitable conclusion is that no piece of literature will ever come close to reaching this impossibly high standard. What isn’t always readily apparent is twofold.

One. The Great Gatsby wasn’t Fitzgerald’s first novel. It was his third after his debut novel, This Side of Paradise, and then The Beautiful and Damned. He also churned out plays and short stories. He developed his writing skills over the years.

Two. The Great Gatsby didn’t just magically flow from the tip of Fitzgerald’s pencil. There were several drafts of The Great Gatsby, and Fitzgerald wrote this book over a span of years; it took nearly three years for The Great Gatsby to go from the planning phase to ultimate publication. Three years.

As early as June 1922, Fitzgerald began planning The Great Gatsby according to Matthew Bruccoli in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference (page 53), and in October 1922, Fitzgerald moved to Great Neck, Long Island (West Egg), the primary setting for the book. In a letter dated to Willa Cather, Fitzgerald said that he was “in the middle of the first draft A Lost Lady [Willa Cather’s novel] was published.� A Lost Lady was published in 1923. Finally, The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925.

Fun Fact: In the very earliest versions of The Great Gatsby, Daisy was named Ada, and Nick was named Dud.

In the manuscript of The Great Gatsby, you can see that the famous quotes weren’t quite refined yet. For example, in the manuscript, “an extraordinary aliveness to life, an alert vitality such as I have never found in any human person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again,� doesn’t quite stir the soul as much as, “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.�

The manuscript mentions psychic radio, garbage men, and dope. None of which found their way into the published version.

The manuscript also shows where Fitzgerald struggled—there are many drafts of the confrontation scene between Tom and Gatsby. Further, in the manuscript, Daisy was much more into Gatsby, confiding in Nick that she plans to leave Tom in a couple of months and then she shows up at Gatsby’s house with her things packed, ready to run away with him. Later, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter that he could never quite nail Daisy’s reaction. However, I would argue that the published version is ideal because it mimics the authentic feel of love where one may know his or her own feelings but is not completely sure if the other person fully reciprocates.

Instead of setting impossibly high standards, the manuscript makes writing more accessible. With perhaps enough versions and revisions, greatness is within reach. Or one can hope.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text � $240 from SP Books

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"Birdsong is certainly unique, but it ultimately didn’t come together.

The book opens in 1910, and, Who-ee! is it steamy. Then, the book transitions to World War I. Personally, I haven’t seen any war books this steamy, and I was intrigued how the narrative would unfold.

But, sadly, I was disappointed. First, the author just dropped the steamy plotline. Second, the World War I bit had such wasted potential. The book explores the experience of men who tunneled during the war. This is beyond the traditional trench warfare—these men were digging deep underground to listen for any sign of enemy movement. Uh uh. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go into those dark death holes. No way. No thank you.

But the author didn’t know how to leverage these creepy, spooky, dangerous vibes. He needed to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

And the book is slow. I mean S-L-O-W. When I tried to find an audiobook for this book, I kept running into an abridged version which looks like 60% of the book was cut.

That tells you everything you need to know right there. When 60% of the book is cut, it isn’t good.

The ending was just plain odd. Elizabeth seems to come out of a coma and suddenly realized that World War I happened despite being nearly 40 years old and living in Europe. Apparently, she missed all of the war monuments for decades. The very end of the book was so unbelievable that it was almost laughable.

Birdsong has some flickers of brilliance, but it is bogged down by the ever-so slow placing.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text � Free from Thriftbooks (redeemed Reading Reward)

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"Immeasurably Bad

The storytelling in this is just horrendous. The author explains and overexplains with characters sharing their every thought, wish, and hope. This story wasn’t just spoon-fed but force-fed.

Most of the book was boring filler, and none of the characters are particularly remarkable.

In The Measure, everyone 22 years or older receives a box with a string. These strings correspond with how much time the person has left to live.

The story alternates between at least 8 characters. The author went wide instead of deep, and, as a result, the book suffered.

While the theme is interesting, it lacked interesting subplots. Blake Crouch kind of tackles this topic in a much more interesting way in Upgrade (involving DNA hacking).

Overall, I can’t believe I wasted part of my string on The Measure.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text � $14.92 on eBay

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