I read the book but never really understood why it has such literary acclaim. I guess I sympathized with Jay because no one forgets their first love but he was pretty much a jerk.
He’s not supposed to be a wholly admirable character.
I didn’t care for it much myself. Not saying it was bad, but not my cup of tea...
I had a similar though probably more pronounced reaction to the Great Gatsby when I read it years ago.
My thoughts exactly. To me, it was readable, but not the greatest thing in print like so many seem to proclaim it to be. And besides, it was one of the cheaper Easton Press volumes. Maybe even one of their come-on give aways if I remember correctly. Like they were trying to dump it.