Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Ten of the best misdirected messages

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best misdirected messages in literature.

One novel on the list:
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

Nick Carraway picks up the phone and finds himself listening to a message intended for Gatsby. It is a taste of his dead friend's real life. Some nameless crook is on the line. "'Young Parke's in trouble,' he said rapidly. 'They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter'." When Nick says he is not Gatsby, he hears a long silence, followed by an exclamation, "then a quick squawk as the connection was broken".
Read about another book on the list.

The Great Gatsby appears among Tad Friend's seven best novels about WASPs, Kate Atkinson's top ten novels, Garrett Peck's best books about Prohibition, Robert McCrum's top ten books for Obama officials, Jackie Collins' six best books, and John Krasinski's six best books, and is on the American Book Review's list of the 100 best last lines from novels.

--Marshal Zeringue