Afternoon Bites: Edelstein on “Gatsby,” Jenny Hval, Joe Hill’s Latest, Artist Novels, and More

“The best thing about Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated/much-dreaded The Great Gatsby is that, for all its computer-generated whoosh and overbroad acting, it is unmistakably F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.” David Edelstein’s review of a certain film that’s highly anticipated around these parts is now up. Jenn Pelly interviewed Jenny Hval for Pitchfork. “It’s the fact that NOS4A2—a relentless, profoundly disturbing monster of a book—reads at every level like King’s work at its prime, a discomfiting mix of the otherworldly and quotidian, seeded with buried […]

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How Much F. Scott Fitzgerald Can You Take?

I see your future, and in the upcoming days and weeks I see a deluge of posts related to F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. There will be many more unfortunate top ten lists, photo galleries, and other assorted blog posts to get you attention as the world braces for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation to hit theaters.

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Happy Birthday to The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel was first published by Charles Scribner’s Sons on this day in 1925.  We were trying to think of something to say about the book that hasn’t been said already, but nothing came to mind. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.  

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Indexing: Stone Arabia, Marc Spitz, Adam Clark, drinking for Fitzgerald’s birthday, and more

Tobias Carroll This week, I read Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, on the recommendation of Alex Eben Meyer. (Who, you may recall, contributed to eMusic’s project of creating covers for the albums described in the novel.) Ed Champion’s five-part roundtable discussion of the book (which concludes with comments from Spiotta) is invaluable, and it’s left me curious to read her other two novels. At the novel’s heart is a reclusive musician who makes compelling music in isolation; it brought to mind […]

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Jay Gatsby Would be Pissed

Posted by Jason Diamond The 25-room Colonial Revival mansion built in 1902 on Long Island’s Gold Coast and  thought to be the inspiration behind a F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, has been turned into a pile of rubble so a bunch of McMansions could be built where it once stood. I hope the ghost of Daisy Buchanan haunts the people who end up moving there.

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Jay Gatsby: Vampire Killer?

Posted by Jason Diamond On January 1st, F Scott Fitzgerald’s copyright on his body of work expired.  Will somebody use that as a chance to create a new Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Jane Slayre?  It seems unlikely, says Daniel Morgan at Monocle. Update: The New York Times gives a pre-defense of Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby film

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