The Critics’ Corner
The Great Fitzgerald
by Bertil Falk
He had a way of tearing off short stories,
small masterpieces of a master mind,
but spent a lot of time on literary mainstream,
appreciated by the besserwisser ones.
Let’s put aside that boring Gatsby thing,
which always bombed adapted to the screen.
His legacy will sometime change him upside down,
when all his marvelous tear-offs glow
like stars on fiction’s fine firmament.
Copyright © 2014 by Bertil Falk
Challenge questions:
What does “besserwisser” seem to mean?
The author says elsewhere that F. Scott Fitzgerald worked so hard to perfect The Great Gatsby that the novel lost the freshness of his short stories. Do you agree?
Would you go further and say that The Great Gatsby is boring as a film or novel? Or do you disagree? In either case, why?
What short stories might the author be thinking of? Which would you cite as being fresh and interesting? Why?
Can you think of other authors whose work in one genre seems preferable to their work in another genre?
