Book Review – Forget Me Not: An anthology of short stories by Kitty Campanile

Writing short stories is a different art to the novel and difficult to do, but Kitty Campanile is an expert.  There are some real gems here.  Because they are so short these are ideal if you are looking for a distraction between tasks or are a car, train or plane passenger.  Each one is a delight and well worth the read.

Keith Jahans

Forget Me Not is sold by Amazon and is available
as a paperback and as a Kindle ebook

 

Book Review – The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald: Reader’s Guide on Video. Narrated by Robert Crayola.

Having read The Great Gatsby and not being sure that it is really so great, I went online to see if I could find out more about it and found this Reader’s Guide on Amazon.  It is really designed for someone who is studying American literature but I thought it might be useful in pointing out important aspects of the novel I might have missed.

Indeed there were parts of the book that I had overlooked or not considered vital to the plot but overall I think I got the essence of the story.  It did not encourage me to go back and read it again but I think it can be valuable viewing such a guide to see if there really are ingredients there that persuade people it is a major literary work.  There are many other guides available if you care to search for them and this example is worth looking at.

Keith Jahans

The Great Gatsby Reader’s Guide
on Video is available from Amazon

Book Review – The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald.

I have heard this referred to as “The great American novel” and yet until now I had never read it.  But I had seen two of the movies based on the book, the 1949 version staring Alan Ladd and the more recent 2013 version with Leonardo DiCaprio.  I found both unmemorable except for the ending.  I was put off reading the novel because of its reputation of being a classic as I thought I would find it too complex and long winded for me to follow.  Then I heard that it was only just over 100 pages long so I thought I would give it a go.

The book is famous for its descriptions and I must admit that they are superb.  There is not a great deal of action but there is a great deal of the characters talking about each other and principally about Gatsby.  The story is seen through the eyes of one Nick Carraway, a young man who works in New York’s Bond market, and who lives in a small house next to Gatsby’s huge mansion where Gatsby is renowned for holding lavish parties.  Thus all the descriptions and the motives attributed to the characters are made in Carraway’s own words.  This means that the reader is entirely dependant on his judgement about the validity of the events in the novel as they unfold.

The book is very readable and the plot held my attention right to the end even though I knew the outcome having seen the films.  However, I am yet to be convinced about the greatness of the work and if it indeed it is worthy to be considered a great American classic.  But please read it and decide for yourself.

Keith Jahans
Peatmore Press

The Great Gatsby is available in hardback, paperback and as an ebook through most book stores