pleasantly surprised, decently good read 

figured it wouldn’t stand up to Gatsby, and it’s not as good but I do like it

it touches on the same themes, concepts, lifestyle, and life experiences, but it’s written differently 

it’s written like a third-person journal or a collection of short stories all about the same person at different points in his life, chronologically - I don’t know how to explain it 

I find it reminiscent of the catcher in the rye - maybe a Princeton guy with a different personality type’s version. In the catcher in the rye, he’s the same guy but doesn’t care about anything. In this version, he’s that guy demographically, but he’s the type of guy to care way too much about everything. They’d probably hate each other. Idk

it’s intriguing to me to get insight into Ivy League culture many years ago, it’s always interesting how  things persist. you talk to an alumni from 30 years ago and it feels like nothing changes. they had a nearly identical experience. the human experience is so universal sometimes 

I’m also thinking about how often Fitzgerald writes about working really hard to get money and losing a woman you love to not having enough money (??)