It was not one of my favorites. In my personal opinion, if you liked, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, then you will also like this one. For me it reminded me of two friends and all of those two friends' negative qualities. It made me wonder why my two friends don't annoy me. With that said, I still think it has its value- I liked a few of the quotes and my favorite parts were, by far, the times he spent with Monsignor Darcy.
Plot- the story follows Amory Blaine- through childhood, school and college and briefly during the war and after. I felt like it was a Napoleon Dynamite story- not in humor or style of the story, but in the fact that I felt the character had very little growth. He declares himself at the end to be selfish and a romantic at heart, but I never felt much change. There were little mini stories throughout which were entertaining, but I felt like the lessons learned, or the point in sharing them was left out.
It is very reminiscent of youth, how he regrets losing it and wishes he could do it all over. There was a quote when he was going through this that I liked- saying we don't really want to go through things again- we just want the pleasure or the thrill of doing certain things, or having a second chance at life (like in Faust and other novels).
So summary- it has value- but don't expect some great change of character or huge plot line. Read it for the ideas he brings up and the moments of wisdom scattered throughout its pages.
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