The Great Gatsby

I really enjoyed the Great Gatsby movie so I wanted to check out the book and read Fitzgerald for the first time.

I can now see that the movie did a great job adapting this less than 200 page book. The story was very atmospheric and descriptive. Fitzgerald continually makes you question the idea of the American Dream and if it's truly attainable.

We're all reaching out for our green light at the end of the dock.

‘In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'

The book starts off with this brilliant line, setting up a base for what the story has in store.
Did not know this was a love story, a tragic one at that.
Will re read for sure.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Before this, I made my way through Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise which I, admittedly, found to be a tad slow. Regardless, I found both books to be filled with joyous prose and beautiful stories. For me this book embodies the 1920's jazz-era - a time where morals and direction were second-class citizens to the collective mind-set of the population; where your crew and the parties you frequented defined you as a being

Nick Carraway serves as a mild-mannered yet internally confused narrator, who constructs marvellous opinions and insights into his endeavours with enigmatic neighbour-turned-host Jay Gatsby. The way Fitzgerald constructs scenery and underlying tension between narratives is what makes this book so amazing. This is a classic and should definitely be read at some stage in your life. It isn't that long...so you have no excuse.

I really wish Fitzgerald had written a Jordan Baker spin-off sequel; clearly, there's a mysterious depth hidden beneath her skin. Ideally it would feature some frosty dates with Nick in hotel parlours, richly plated in impersonal art deco (the hotel's, that is). Their words would carome passed each other like struck golf balls, disappearing into the dark recesses beneath vanishing velvet curtains. Whole pages would be dedicated to Nick's brooding internal monologue, emerging as not so many pointless observations, like the abrupt scratch on vinyl as the record ends. The tone would be Nabokovian. The epilogue lighthearted.

In summary: was Daisy even in this book? I barely recall. Gatsby's anxiety was not endearing. The dinner party with the mistress claims the most memorability. Nick's principle of disengagement makes for b-o-ring protagonism. Wonderfully written.

Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Rounded up to 4 stars

Summary: Nick Carroway moves into a small home in New York next to a large mansion owned by one Jay Gatsby. Nick gets involved in Gatsby's plan to reestablish contact and woo Nick's second cousin, Daisy Buchanan. The book highlights the American Dream, life in the roaring 20's, and the sometimes-hollow lifestyle 0f the wealthy and famous. Additionally, it highlights the impossibility of recapturing the past (and a little of how we often look to the past with rose-colored glasses).

Definitely not a page-turner until you start to understand what is happening. I am glad I reread this book when I was older and I can appreciate it more. I rated it highly, not because I am in love with the book itself, but rather I find it interesting as a social commentary. American society pushes such extreme messages of hard work, wealth, and individualism–the grind mentality–and this book makes one wonder if it's actually worth it in the end.

The Great Gatsby is one of those books that high schools like to make their students read but somehow I dodged that so I finally read it this year.

Frankly I found the characters pretty unlikable, especially Tom Buchanan. I recognize this takes place in the early 1920's but his racism and abusiveness is still jarring to read. I really wish he had gotten some sort of comeuppance at the end but he didn't.

Nick is so generic; we know barely anything about him other than he decided to go to NY to try his hand at selling bonds for an investment firm. He also is engaged and there's a bit about how he's trying to break it but we never get a resolution to that thread. He feels forgettable despite being the narrator.

Gatsby himself, he could have gotten what he wanted if he had been more subtle, but then again he was being almost as brutish as Tom towards Daisy, just in a more charming way.

I just didn't feel satisfied reading this story and if I were a teacher I'd probably refer to this book as “The Great Gatsby, or Terrible People Being Terrible.”

This is not a “love story” and I don't understand why it is held in that regard by word-of-mouth. Or at least from my perspective.

The prose was incredible, which I didn't expect; it had an excellent way of incorporating modern and “classical” eloquence that I found enthralling and kept me hooked. The way the author handled each character's introduction was great as well because by meeting them for the first time we had a general idea of their personality as well as how our expectations about them would be “distorted” or “emphasized” as the story continued. I loved the way Gatsby, in particular, was [formally] introduced because it defied my expectations about him: instead of presenting him with an almost regal light or with an imposing introduction that completely defined him (like the author did with Tom a.k.a Toxic #1), he simply appeared as a guy having a good time conversing with the protagonist in the most casual way possible. When he said “I'm Gatsby” I literally jumped and had to go back and read when he came into the scene (as by this point we were introduced to a bunch of characters in said party that we weren't going to see again, so I thought he was one of them).

One of the aspects I like about Nick, our narrator, is that he really didn't care for whatever lavish things Gatsby did or tried to impress him with: he simply looked and interacted with him just like when he first met him at that party. Thus, their friendship seemed palpable and probably the only honest thing devoid of any hypocrisy to come out of this story. Just the fact that he stayed with Gatsby on that long night until morning and said those words about him, about how he's actually worth more than what they made him out to be, was probably my favorite part of the book.

Having said this, Gatsby is an idiot. A lovable idiot (sometimes, especially towards the end) but an idiot at that. Meanwhile, I personally think Daisy is our Toxic #2, and no wonder she stayed with Tom: they belong with each other as they are, in fact, the same (minus the White Supremacy thing, as far as I know). I don't know if that's an unpopular opinion, but three people died in this book and even Nick pointed out their nature TWICE in the novel.

Oh, and I liked Jordan. She was very “grounded” and had a no bs air to her that made her such a compelling character in a way that I didn't understand how she became friends with Daisy in the first place. She and Nick are probably the best couple in the book and they are not given enough credit or attention by the author.

In the end, I really loved this book and story, and well, it's an “American masterpiece” that's deserving of said acknowledgment. Although, I'm picky about something that didn't come to be: when Nick met Tom for the last time before he left NY for good (and after he parted ways with Jordan, which made me mad because I wanted those two to be together but I guess I was asking for a lot), it was revealed that he pointed Wilson in the direction of Gatsby, and said that he got what he deserved for killing Myrtle. Now, I don't know what this says about me, but I wanted Nick (as he shook his hand saying his goodbyes) to pull him closer and say to his ear “Daisy was driving” and just walk away. It would've been satisfying AF.

This classic novel is full of imagery and themes for discussion. I think one reason it continues to endure as a school literature staple is that for students just entering the analytical world of literature the connections and themes painted within this novel are rich and easily identified. The author is a master of painting a visual picture. I was a sucker for the Robert Redford Film and it is one of the few novels I read as a student that came to life on the screen in a way that was much as I had imagined.
I lowered my rating to 3 stars because at the same time I felt like I wanted more. It felt like the characters were almost caricatures of the era, or perhaps props used as vessels to tell the store of the themes of class and privilege and money and power and appearance upon the glitzy backdrop of a by gone era. Lessons to learn within this novel I understand but I would rather have been taught them by more deeply developed characters.