Tender is the Night, Nicole, and trains

Alright, so I am a regular lurker on this list and dont often feel compelled
enough to post but I will just this once. On the recommendation from my
fellow bananafish I purchased Tender is the Night since you all seemed to be
in love with the thing. I am only on about pg. 70 but have passed the passage
where Nicole is mentioned as the cause of why "trains began their run at
Chicago and traversed the round belly of the continent to California." Someone
not long ago had posted on this and saw Nicole as representing the woman
behind the scenes who in a man's world wield more power than we might think.
While I won't argue with this point or my rough and probably off-center
paraphrase attempt, I would say that I see this passage about Nicole as
showing her consumerism and the drive of money and capitalism. It is the
"round belly" of our wealthy country whose trains move back and forth
providing the consumer with goods and that is what drives so many of us.

Please feel free to tear into this and although this is non-Salinger related,
I would rather discuss it with bananafish rather tha a group of Fitzgerald
fanatics. I just get the idea that their critiques of each other and the
man's work might be a bit too academic for me. Just another thought.

One last thing. I am loving this book thus far. Thank you to those who spoke
of it so glowingly and caused me to feel compelled to go out to Borders and
buy it. You made quite an impression as I put the other 10 books in my hands
back and opted for this one book on my meager college senior budget.

Eagerly awaiting a response,
Levi

Check out my site at http://ruonthelevel.com/
and if all else fails this might work http://ruonthelevel.no-ip.com/

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Received on Wed Nov 27 22:37:29 2002