Mr. Blue

Mr.Blue by Myles Connolly, Introduction by John B. Breslin, S.J.    128 pages

This year, 2018, my New Year’s resolution was to pick twelve of the books that have been loitering on my bookshelves and actually read them. For February, I picked a short novel that has been print continuously since it was originally published in 1928.

While it’s considered Catholic fiction, I remember distinctly why I initially purchased it: the following sentence was on the back cover from John B. Breslin’s introduction: “Blue…was a uniquely American personality. As Myles Connolly wrote him, J. Blue was the man whom the ambitious Jay Gatsby might have become had he steered by a higher truth than the sound of money in Daisy Buchanan’s voice.” A novel that compares its protagonist to Fitzgerald’s Gatsby? I had to have it.

Breslin’s introduction makes may comparisons between Gatsby and Blue. He also called Blue a modern St. Francis of Assisi, which I didn’t seem at all.

Basically Blue is a free spirit, osne who is more interested in God and the Earth than in following a strict set of guidelines that the human race places upon itself. He takes a vow of poverty and chases that vow with abandon.

I’m not sure that I truly understand Connolly’s message, but it’s good little read. Mr. Blue receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.