Richard Nixon et Jay Gatsby: même combat?

Le Président Nixon mourait il y a vingt ans cette semaine. Pour l'occasion John Aloysius Farrell raconte une anecdote sur une retraite du président Nixon à Camp David au plus fort de la tourment du Watergate. Lors de cette escapade, Nixon a demandé qu'on lui présente deux films, "Becket" et "The great Gatsby". Pour l'auteur qui publiera bientôt un nouvel ouvrage sur Nixon, l'histoire de Gatsby est celle de Nixon.

 "If in “Becket” Nixon found a clue to his destruction, in “Gatsby” he was engulfed by grand biographical theme. Sitting there, in the dark at Camp David, did he not see? Could he not help but recognize? “The Great Gatsby” is the story of his life.

 Having spent much of the last few years poking through Nixon’s papers, writings and psyche, I find the comparison convincing. They were each, Gatsby and Nixon, strivers from the west, sons of pedestrian parentage, fugitives from the tedium of the frontier farm and small-town monotony. They spun their daydreams beneath wide skies, and lay awake in bed at night, plotting the unfolding of their incumbent greatness. On the fly leaf of a book, Gatsby drafted a self-help plan: “Rise from bed….Exercise….Read one improving book or magazine per week.” Now hear from President Richard Nixon, scrawling notes to himself on his ever-present yellow pads: “Add element of lift to each appearance….Pithy, memorable phrases….Stop recreation except purely for exercise….Need for more reading.”

 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/richard-nixon-great-gatsby-105874.html?hp=pm_1#.U1cD-_l5PAw