Chapter by Chapter Countdown to GATSBY ... Chapter Eight

Nick Carroway (Tobey Maguire); "I couldn't shake him free"

"Crossing his lawn, I saw that his front door was still open and he was leaning against a table in the hall, heavy with dejection or sleep.

"Nothing happened," he said wanly. "I waited, and about four o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light."

His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes. We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions, and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches-once I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghostly piano. There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the rooms were musty, as though they hadn't been aired for many days. I found the humidor on an unfamiliar table, with two stale, dry cigarettes inside. Throwing open the French windows of the drawing-room, we sat smoking out into the darkness.

"You ought to go away," I said. "It's pretty certain they'll trace your car."

"Go away now, old sport?"

"Go to Atlantic City for a week, or up to Montreal."

He wouldn't consider it. He couldn't possibly leave Daisy until he knew what she was going to do. He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn't bear to shake him free."

Chapter Eight, Page Five


I've been counting down to the Great Gatsby movie with this chapter by chapter countdown coupling (too much?) an image from the film with a passage from each chapter.

"Nothing happened" except that everything did happen. Daisy's silence spoke volumes. Nothing was going to happen; she wasn't going to leave Tom. What Gatsby lived for in feverish anticipation to happen wasn't going to happen. What he fantasized happening between Daisy and him would simply never happen. And he knew it. That's what he was thinking about; not the horror of Myrtle crushed under the wheels of his own big yellow car. Just how to hold on to a dying dream.


WOW! They really don't like the movie. Sounds like a mostly uniform chorus from the critics of all dazzle no drama; only Todd McCarthy at The Hollywood Reporter thinks there might be some merit in all of Baz' over the tippy-top-ness; a case where excess excels and the drama doesn't disappoint. I certainly am glad to see you, Mr. McCarthy! I've got tickets for a 10:30 show on May 9th; I'm hoping I agree. 

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