Careless People

  

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

-The Great Gatsby, 1925

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I need to share something.

     I just had a real geek moment, so let me indulge. A few days ago, during my flâner-ing about Paris, I came across this sign outside Shakespeare and Company:

     Well, as The Great Gatsby is my favorite book- my iPhone case is even the cover art- I got a little excited. Excited enough that I hurried home from my first day of class, blow-dried my hair from the heavy rain today that made me swear under my breath every other second, and walked from my apartment over to the rue de la Bûcherie. I've read Gatsby probably four times and written a few high school and college papers about it, so I was thrilled to join in. Plus, they promised free cocktails and I'm not one to pass on that.

     Sarah Churchwell, author of Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of The Great Gatsby, came from London to read excerpts and talk about her book. I think Gatsby is a book that is open to so much interpretation, so I was interested to hear what she had to say. I stood outside on the sidewalk among the enormous group that gathered and listened to her speak from inside the bookstore.

     According to Churchwell, the novel, set in 1922, actually predates the images of flappers dancing the Charleston. Women didn't start wearing knee-length dresses until later in the 1920s and the Charleston was a phenomenon that swept the nation in 1925. Daisy and Jordan probably would've worn lightweight, white dresses down to their ankles. 

     An audience member asked Churchwell why Daisy doesn't stay with Gatsby at the end of the novel, and I've always been grappling with the same idea. Her interpretation is that when Daisy comes to one of Gatsby's parties, she's repulsed by the overtly gaudy display and his lack of true friends and from this point on, she begins to draw away from him. She wants nothing to do with the lifestyle of West Egg and it makes her uncomfortable. "She cares for Gatsby, but she's a careless person," Churchwell explains.

     The films are problematic due in part to their casting. "What I can't understand is why would Daisy leave Robert Redford, who's rich, good-looking and Robert Redford, for Bruce Dern? It doesn't make sense," Churchwell says with a laugh. She says that Leonardo DiCaprio is the best Gatsby because he can play both criminal and earnest, but that Carey Mulligan was miscast completely. In regards to the film versions, Churchwell thinks they still can't be filmed properly, because Gatsby has already been told in its most perfect version: literature. What makes the book so beautiful is its commitment to ambiguity and "Gatsby is a book that grows with you. You can read it at 16 and again at 27." I agree. 

    

      The Shakespeare staff then served us French 75s--Champagne, lemon and gin--while a jazz band played and Churchwell signed books. I went over to her corner and handed her my copy. After telling her my name and that I really enjoyed her talk, I added that I was from St. Paul, Fitzgerald's birthplace. "Oh, I'm so glad to have met someone from St. Paul," she smiled. "Fitzgerald would've loved that." 

Rachel