the_thomas•1mo agoProlific Poster

That Thursday where three book clubs all argued about the same novel

I run a small meetup group that rotates through different book clubs around town, and last Thursday was wild. I had to sit through three separate debates about The Great Gatsby. The morning group hated it, said Nick was a boring narrator. The lunch crowd argued it was really about class struggle, not love. Then the evening bunch fought over whether Gatsby himself was pathetic or romantic. I went in thinking the book was just okay, but hearing three totally different takes back to back changed my mind. Now I think it's one of the most layered novels I've ever read. Those people convinced me through pure passion and detail, not any fancy arguments. Has anyone else had their opinion flipped by listening to multiple groups argue the same book in one day?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorcoleman1mo ago

Wait, are you saying you had to sit through three separate book clubs at your own meetup event, or did you crash three different club meetings in one day? I gotta say, the way you described it sounds like you organized the whole thing yourself, which is what I'm politely questioning. If you actually ran three separate groups discussing the same book on the same day, that's a logistical nightmare. I've done swap meets where two groups overlap, and it's chaos. The timing alone would be brutal. Either way, your point about how multiple takes on Gatsby changed your mind is solid. I've seen the same thing happen with older books that people think they already understand. Hearing three different people argue three different things about the same story shows you how much room the author left open. Gatsby is a perfect example of that because Fitzgerald wrote it so you could read it as a romance, a tragedy, or a class critique depending on what you bring to it.

seth_carr1mo ago

Also weird nobody mentioned the soundtrack. That soundtrack changed everything.