After you’ve read Anthony Franze’s piece on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grave, comment on what literary line would be on your headstone for a chance to win a copy of Anthony’s breakout novel, The Advocate's Daughter, a family thriller set in the insular Supreme Court world. #1 New York Times bestseller Lee Child called the novel “smart, sophisticated, suspenseful, and written with real insider authenticity.” Providence Journal said it’s “engaging and riveting.” And Suspense Magazine hailed it as “the ‘best of the best’ when it comes to suspense.”
My son Jake, a high school senior who soon leaves for college to pursue his love of journalism and English literature, is the most well read person I know. Having misspent my own youth, I’ve taken to reading whatever’s on Jake’s bedside table—to try in these last days while he’s under my roof to better connect with him, to see where his heart and mind are at this exciting time in his life. So, that recently led me to The Great Gatsby.
As a writer, I should probably be embarrassed that I’d never read the classic, which is core curriculum in most high schools (did I mention my misspent youth?). But I soon found myself lost in the world of Daisy Buchanan, Nick Carraway, and the denizens of West Egg.
I won’t bore you with my literary analysis, though as I read Gatsby, I imagined what many literary agents might say about the manuscript in today’s ruthless world of publishing (“It’s not a novel, it’s only 180 pages!” “It needs more action in the beginning, you don’t even meet Jay Gatsby until 50 pages in!”). Rather, when I finished the book, Jake and I decided on an afternoon of Fitzgerald. No, not a boozy day of debauchery reminiscent of Jay Gatsby’s parties (or Fitzgerald himself)—if it were just me that might have happened.
But instead, we watched the Leonardo DiCaprio film adaptation—thumbs down from both of us—and then Googled the author. I was surprised to learn that Fitzgerald was just 29 when he published Gatsby. As a 45-year-old author, I got a little ache in my heart at that.
Then, another bombshell for someone my age: Fitzgerald died when he was 44, something that made me appreciate even more my time with the 17-year-old sitting next to me.
We also read that Fitzgerald is buried near our Washington, D.C.-area home, so we decided to go to his gravesite. Or, as Fitzgerald would have put it, “we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.”
Walking a graveyard is a bit of a creepy father-son outing, I admit, but there was something peaceful about strolling the leaf-filled cemetery on a windy fall day with my oldest child. We stood silently when we came upon Fitzgerald’s grave, in part out of respect, in part from the inscription on the stone:
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
The last line of Gatsby, on its author’s final resting place. I thought it was fitting, given the many “lasts” I’d be doing with my son before he ventures out on his own, before he’s off on literary and other adventures without me. “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
I also thought, Man, I’m gonna miss this kid.
What literary line would be on your headstone?
Comment below and tell us what literary line would be on your headstone for a chance to win a copy of The Advocate's Daughter by Anthony Franze!
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Anthony Franze is the author of THE ADVOCATE’S DAUGHTER (St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur, March 22, 2016), and a lawyer in the Supreme Court practice of a prominent Washington, D.C. law firm.
— “Good-bye, Francie,” she whispered.
She closed the window.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
The End!
and when the earth shall clain your limbs then shall you truly dance
“who smelt it delt it”
And they all lived happily ever after!!
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.
Stop worrying about growing old. And Think about growing up.
He Ate, He Drank, He Slept.
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”
Don’t forget me. And before you go, tell someone younger not to forget me.
Ifyou ook for perfection you’ll never be content.
“To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come”
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE
BUT IF YOU DO IT RIGHT
ONCE IS ENOUGH
“And now you don’t have to be perfect,you can be good.”
Life is what happens while you’re making other plans
Well, I think my tombstone might say “Did the Cubs win today?” but as for a literary line, I always admired Oscar Wilde’s last words: “This wallpaper is hideous! One of us has to go!”
Also, “I don’t want to live on forever through my work. I want to live on forever in my apartment.”–Woody Allen
“Live! Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!”
It was a dark and stormy night
Das Ende.
Darn, sign in didn’t take.
Again,
It was a dark and stormy night
TO SLEEP. PERCHANCE TO DREAM
really great that your 17 year old son would find this a great way to spend the day – also did you watch the Robert Redford version it was much better than the newer one – I for one cannot decide what I would like for my epithat – may not need one as I am going to be cremated
“What hath night to do with sleep?”
– John Milton, Paradise Lost
” And in I go, where the dogs lie flat on the kitchen floor, tails wagging, and the kettle is whistling, and the house is very warm.” H is for Hawk. Helen Macdonald.
I see several first lines, but not so many last lines. It may be, that as the final words pass our eyes, we do not take them in but let them, with the book, vanish into our memories.
“Prepare your mind for contact.” Yes!
I drank what?
Would love to win!
he lived and died free….
Is that all there is?
Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.
“Too weird to live, too rare to die!”
Hunter S. Thompson
My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today. That line from Watership Down gets me right in the feels every time.
What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. My epithet? “This was murder, please investigate” or “the games afoot”. Decisions, decisions.
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ? [url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19968.John_Lennon]John Lennon[/url]
The end.
“Always” from Harry Potter with my husband.
I have read the Great Gatsby at least 6 times falling in love with its flawed characters in my junior year of high school. As to its final words I still do not grasp the meaning of them. Is it a pessimistic statement about life, an affirmative song stating that no matter what life survives and is inextinguishable, or is it in the end a series of quiet frustrations meaning nothing. I can not figure it out. As for my tombstone I would have written “Too in love with the night to be afraid of the dark.”
Cartoonist Fontaine Fox had a good line on his headstone: “I had a feeling something like this was going to happen.”
a good life lived and loved
The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground…they are buried deep in our hearts. The Count of Monte Cristo
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Luckiest girl ever.
Find what you love and let it kill you
“Called Back”
by Emily Dickinson
‘Where sky and water meet, Where the waves grow sweet,Doubt not, Reepicheep,To find all you seek, There is the utter East”
Looks great!
Haven’t thought that far ahead yet! It should be something funny to make people laugh…I’ll check back in when I think of something clever.
injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere
Misunderstood….
Not always right but never wrong.
The End! 🙂
I will see you in your dreams
“I WILL BE BACK”
Memories, evaporated like spilt perfume.
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.”
Death be not proud.
“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”
They that have the power to hurt and will do none…
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces.
don’t go
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Good deal, count me in!
The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground…they are buried deep in our hearts
I intend to live forever or die trying.
“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love /
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”
-Whitman
Simple and makes me smile.
Past perfect, future…the rest is unknown.
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Dr. Seuss