THAT THING CALLED MAGIC
A friend asked me recently to name my favorite book and for the hundredth time I felt a shiver of apology as I reluctantly muttered the words, The Great Gatsby.
Why the apology? I don’t really know.
All I do know is that I’ve never been able to find a book the equal of Gatsby when it came to that thing called magic—the ability of a book to rise above its covers and embrace you in a way you may never understand but will never forget.
It’s more than character, more than plot. Like so many things in life, it doesn’t have to be explained. It’s either there or it isn’t—in the characters, the plot, the location, the mood, the period, the style—all the elements working together, magically.
Thousands of authors have tried to capture the magic of Gatsby in their novels. Hunter Thompson is said to have typed out the entire novel on a typewriter in hopes of improving his writing style.
Magic like Gatsby is not transferrable. You have to create your own.
Movies have spent millions trying to recreate Gatsby. Robert Redford tried to be Gatsby but he wound up being Robert Redford trying to be Gatsby. The magic wasn’t there.
Leonardo DiCaprio is giving Gatsby his best shot in a movie coming our way soon, and I wish him well. His Gatsby may be a tremendous critical and box office success. But magic like Gatsby is not for sale and it’s not transferrable.
It’s just plain magic, period.
Keywords:
"Kate Conway Has It All. I'd Hate Her Except I Wanna Be Her." ”
—Quote from Amazon reader Susan Scarafia
About William
Before becoming a novelist, William Thompson (Tom) Ong worked for advertising agencies in New York and his own agency in Philadelphia. He is a graduate of DePauw University and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Tom lives...
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Causes William Ong Supports
ACLU
Planned Parenthood
Southern Poverty Law Center
William ’s Favorite Books
A Farewell to Arms, Saturday, Couples, The Razor's Edge, World According to Garp, Mrs. Dalloway, Get Shorty, The Great Gatsby, The English Patient, Mr. Palomar...
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The Great Gatsby is one of my
The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books. For one thing, Jay Gatsby embodies for me the Romantic Hero par excellence. He is also unique in being a crook and yet having true integrity and purity. The book is such an astute observation of human nature, I can think of few other novels that equal it. It's a microcosm that contains every bit of human nature.
It's also proof (agents and publishers, take note), that a novel does not have to reach 100,000 words to be a gold nugget.
When I taught English as a Foreign Language, I often gave extracts from The Great Gatsby to my more advaced students. More often than not, they would be so attracted by the extract that they went and bought the book.
Fourth Gatsby movie on the way ...
May use Hollywood theme for next Hummingbird Review. Hollywood is in love with Gatsby and a few other classics.
Fourth Gatsby movie on the way ...
May use Hollywood theme for next Hummingbird Review. Hollywood is in love with Gatsby and a few other classics.