Gatsby notes

I read the Great Gatsby, like everyone else, in high school, and don't remember much about it, except that Gatsby was a self-made man and I admired that. I don't remember much else. Now there's a new movie version out, but that's not why I picked it up after all these years.

I come at it from Michael Chabon and the Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Chabon said he read The Great Gatsby  and Goodbye, Columbus before he wrote his first novel. And so I read Gatsby and now I'm in the middle of  Columbus. He's right: all three books take place over a summer.

Chapter breakdown/summary of Gatsby (which might help me with my book, when I write mine):

1. Long Island, East Egg: Nick has dinner with Daisy, Tom and Jordan.

2. Tom's NY apt: Nick has dinner/party with Tom, his mistress Myrtle and her friends.

3. West Egg, Gatsby mansion: Nick at Gatsby's party, meets him for the first time.

4. NY: Gatsby takes Nick to lunch in NY; meets Wolfsheim; Jordan flashback to meeting Daisy, and why Gatsby bought the house across from Daisy. Hatches plan for tea, to bring Daisy over.

5. West Egg: tea date with Nick, Gatsby and Daisy (many scenes with three people). Tour of Gatsby's mansion.

6. Gatsby's real name and background. Then at Gatsby's: Nick comes over; finds Tom and friends over at Gatsby's.

7. East Egg, at Tom's: Daisy, Tom, Gatsby, Nick and Jordan. Decide to go into NY; Tom realizes what's going on between Daisy and JG; confrontation at NY hotel; car crash -- Myrtle dead; Daisy hit her.

8. Back at Wilson's. What happened after the accident. (breaks Nick's narrative POV, switch to omnipotent POV).

9. JB shot/furneral. Wolfsheim explains his history with JB; end of summer; Nick ties up loose ends with Jordan; leaves East.