The Great Gatsby

1860onwards challenge - Book 3 - The Great Gatsby (1925)

Slow and somewhat tepid start. Personally not super interested in the period or the setting. Sometimes hard to follow, the writing being quite wishy-washy in places. Last third more interesting, emotional, and enjoyable. However it wasn't worth trudging through the first two thirds.

Characters ***

Atmosphere **

Plot *

Emotion ***

Style **

2.2

I was assigned many of the classics in high school, but never this one, and had never read it until now. I've been reading 600 to 900 page books lately, and at 150 pages or so, this went shockingly fast.

Mixed feelings on it. I liked it more in the last few pages than I did the rest of the time I spent reading it. The prose actively impeded my understanding at more than one point, either through the age of the language or Fitzgerald's personal style.

I decided to read it after all this time because of the praise for the writing in Defector's “Defector Reads A Book” feature. Mostly I felt the opposite in terms of the moment-to-moment prose, which I didn't think was anything to write home about.

But what Fitzgerald describes, he really captures. The sad hollowness underlying Gatsby's celebrated parties and, really, everything he does. The idealized past, always just out of reach.

The last page is by far the best in the entire book. No wonder it's the only one routinely quoted.

For a reader, foreign to American history, especially the Jazz Age (the 1920s), this book would make much less sense. So don't skip the introduction about the same.

I never rated a classic 5 (except Pride and Prejudice), because it makes me feel dishonest. For a classic, this is a pretty good one, and you can finish it in a day.

The levels moral standards are well defined, and the narrator is a decent fellow as we can gather from his actions in the first few chapters, so we tend to resonate with his opinions in the later chapter.

The characters of Tom Buchanan and Mr. Gatsby were developed beautifully, but I couldn't care less about the women. What was the purpose of Jordan's character?

Tom Buchanan was presented as an unlikable guy, from the beginning itself, so the further statements about him just added beautifully to the picture, it was heartwarming.

Maybe the gender roles were so messed up that I didn't care about it. The fight between Tom and Gatsby about who Daisy loved, did not seem to involve Daisy's opinion. Daisy's a character to which stuff happened to. She didn't move through time, time moved through her. And of all the sh*t and roses flying around a few stuck on to her.

The first few chapters built up to too much, and the ending sorta flattened out.

Reading experience was good, the humor and the foreshadowing.

I'd suggest it if you have a few hours to kill, for the thoughts of the narrator, that you can relate to, than for the storyline as such.

I didn't read this when it was assigned in 11th grade English, too preoccupied with how “smart” I was for managing to get by in grade school while not doing the work. In college I read Tender is the Night and enjoyed it and still never picked up Gatsby, while knowing the story. Now at age 30, Nick's age in 1922, I went on a hike in Virginia and decided to take along a book that would not weigh very much. I'm impressed by how much it diverged from how much I “knew” about it from class discussion, plot summaries, and friends' descriptions of seeing the Luhrmann film.

7/10 Narrative seems fantastic on paper, but on execution, although decently done, made for a boring story apart from learning about Gatsby as a character.

The best part about the book are its themes and tragic hero. However, the former are not as profound due to their focused view on American viewpoint of its ideas, rather than having more profound universal concepts or original exploration of these.

La narrativa de Fitzgerald en El gran Gatsby es cinematográfica. Al leer la obra, el lector puede imaginar sin esfuerzo una película que requeriría poco más que la letra del propio libro para su realización, sin alterar el orden ni la sucesión de escenas (No vi aún la de Di Caprio).

La lectura es rápida, amena y entretenida. Los personajes me parecieron algo caricaturescos y lineales, aunque creo que es un recurso del autor para retratar a las clases altas de la época. Sin ser un fan de las descripciones interminables, me quedé con ganas de conocer más detalles sobre la New York de la época, sobre las fiestas de Gatsby, en fin, un contexto mejor presentado.

Siendo sincero, sin la fama que precede al libro y al autor, probablemente me hubiera resultado un libro entretenido y ya. La historia es interesante, el retrato de época está bien logrado, pero no me pareció una obra maestra.

This is one of those classics that I really should have read way before now. F Scott Fitzgerald's most famous work and usually taken as the defining book of the jazz age. I was not one of those people who studied it at school and I have not seen any of the films but decided to pick up a copy to read now in my 30s. I have to admit I was impressed. The prose reads in a surprisingly modern way and really does capture the changing cultural mores of the time. Yes, I can get the criticism that not a huge amount happens, but that is besides the point - what does happen is written well and captures the life of the 1920s in a way that I have not seen any other book do.

This is a short novel, and worth a read to anyone who has an interest in that period in history or anyone who appreciates a well crafted story.

Beautifully written of course, and surprisingly accessible for a book that has such poetic passages. I can't help but feel like I didn't fully get it, though. It feels as if there's another layer of meaning underneath everything that I can almost see but not quite.

I'm sure the movie and video game will clear everything up.

You all know what The Great Gatsby is about so no synopsis here. As always, I don't love writing reviews about classics because there's a million out there better than mine. And I also don't usually like the classics.

Although, this time I had pretty high hopes as I've read Fitzgerald before and really enjoyed his writing style. He's one of my favorite classic writers. This was a little disappointing just because I didn't love it as much as the others I've read. The first half was a little slow, the descriptions were a lot, the plot setup was at a snail's pace.
But the second half was a lot better, I thought. Super sad, all around. 90% of the characters are so easily dislikeable. But the other 10% are just so sad. But it has such lovely iconic quotes. Anyway, 3.5 stars. I'd love for Jeff Bezos to finally acknowledge we want half stars.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I did not expect to enjoy it this much considering the many failed attempts to read it previously. But I finally found the right moment to pick it up again and I couldn't put it down.

Nick Carraway's voice as a narrator was just enthralling. I was touched by his friendship with Jay Gatsby and his loyalty to him. I might not approve the path Gatsby took to fulfill his „American dream”, but his sparkling optimist bordering on naiveté was quite endearing. It was so dispiriting to see Gatsby's life and dreams shattered.

The story might be set the 1920s, but the themes tackled are all so current. There's so much gloom underneath all that glamour that the feeling of desolation still lingers with me, days after finishing this book.