I Thought of Daisy Book

Setting: New York between 1918 and 1920
Subject: love and relationship of young adults in post WWI New York

Interesting: historical insight in social live of young adults in New York between WWI and 1920. Novel and subject seems quite modern for its time although the style is still old fashioned: long winding and large sentences. Apparantly young adults drank a lot in these days and making love seems freer than today.

Not so interesting: Too much explaining, too long sentences (the longest is nearly 1 page long, see last page of first chapter) and sometimes irrelevant long winding passages of thought.

Structure:
The book has five chapters. Each chapter represents a recollected moment, usually a day or a night long.
1 Party at Daisies and start of relationship with Rita - span in time: night to morning
2 break up with Rita and starting with Daisy - day and evening
3 Party at Sues and disappointment with Daisy - evening and night
4 Discussion with professor philosophy, meeting Pete and Daisy who live now together. - afternoon - evening - morning
5 A hot summer day with Daisy at Coney Island, and finally making love to her (even though she is engaged to Pete) - day and evening

Story
The book has five chapters. Every chapter represents a moment in time.
1: The story starts with a party at Daisies where the writer meets Rita Cavanagh, a poet and takes her home. They talk the night through. The chapter concludes with a biography of Hugo Bagman, which at first glance doesn't make sense for the story. This chapter could just stop after the night with Rita.
2: Rita leaves the writer for Paris. The writer looks back at their relationship and how it ended. Here the writer starts to think about Daisy, looks her up and takes her out to dinner.
3: Party at Sue Borglums, a friend of Daisy. The writer planned to see Daisy the next evening, after the first date, but family matters took him for several weeks tot the country. When he came back, he looks up Daisy but she is at a friends home. It was a bit of a disappointment: 'I hoped to find Daisy clean from bath and with her lovely candid smile' What he finds at this "friends" home is Daisy with Pete Bird, which turned out to be Daisies boyfriend, and all of them drunk. They where just planning to go to Sue Borglums party. The writer joins and al his romance falls to pieces. They decide to go home. The writer went out to buy a bottle of gin and on arriving at Daisies apartment Daisy has cut her wrist. Pete and Daisy make it clear that the writer isn't welcome and he goes back to Sues party. Things got dirty there and the writer got in a fight .
4: A jump in time: The writer looks up his old professor in philosophy. Interesting to note that Einsteins relativity theory has its effect on philosophical thinking. It also seems that the scientific world didn't change much: "If you want to see the sort of men that the medieval church must have been made up of, you should study a assemblage of modern scientists" … "If a scientist has evolved a hypothesis which runs counter to the established hypothesis, they won't give it a serious hearing - if he's performed an experiment … which conflicts with accepted experiments, they refuse to look at it!"
Next afternoon he goes to Pete and Daisy who live in de country, near NYC. Next day the writer has a long walk and talk with Daisy. The writer is still in love, but his respect for Pete holds him back.
5. A summers day in NYC. Pete went to Boston with a friend to find work and Daisy and the writer are going to Coney Island and have a good time. It seems they knew the same people from their youth in Pittsburgh. It turns out that Daisy actually was in love with Hugo Bamman. The chapter ends with finally making love to Daisy.

Title
At first glance the title I Thought of Rita would be more appropriate. Throughout the whole story the writer thinks back at his relationship with Rita. Considering that it is written ten years after, and that the story is autobiographical, Daisy was probably much more important for the writer and it looks like the story was written as a meaning to close a chapter with the writers past love.