Great Gatsby, the; (Us Import Ed.)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The Great Gatsby" has been praised until death by virtually all critics - and it deserves every...more

"The Great Gatsby" has been praised until death by virtually all critics - and it deserves every word of it. This is a novel that speaks of craftsmanship, passion and emotion, and remains one of only a rare few books to leave me almost unable to speak for a good long while afterwards. As the title suggests, Jay Gatsby is the core of this story. A dreamer to the extreme, he is obsessed with the facade he created for himself, an artifice that has led him to govern magnificent parties and make himself rich off of shady enterprises. But all his excess is empty, for he has given himself over to the lovely girl Daisy Buchanan - so completely in fact, that the discovery all his wealth cannot secure her love will shatter him. "Gatsby" is at its core a romance, for both a lifestyle and a woman, and a reader cannot help but be drawn in as he loses both of these things at the same time. More than the strength of the story, this book shows Fitzgerald at the height of a literary skill that is undeniable. The anecdotes about Fitzgerald's writing - going through his drafts with a thesarus to change repeated words, filling pages and pages of notebooks with plot changes and character traits - are all proven true. The use of Nick Carraway as a neutral narrator is the perfect conveyance of Gatsby's dreams and the jazz parties they created, and both Tom and Daisy are archetypes beautifully rendered of the rich Gatsby tried so hard to be a part of. The heart of "Gatsby," and the reason I keep coming back to it, are the visions Fitzgerald paints. The lights of the party, the unrest of young James Gatz and the final heartbreaking passage of "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" are sections that on every read pay Fitzgerald the ultimate praise: making writers envy they were not the ones to write them. I don't believe it's the Great American Novel - mainly because I plan to write it myself - but "The Great Gatsby" is one of only a few serious contenders for the title there is. It is, bluntly, a masterpiece.   hide

My AP lit teacher once told me that no one could ever possibly love The Great Gatsby as much as I...more

My AP lit teacher once told me that no one could ever possibly love The Great Gatsby as much as I do, and I'd have to agree, because this book is a little bit of a sickness with me. Anyone who's ever talked to me for five minutes will tell you that this book is the foundation of my life. I don't know what it is--maybe the 200 (literally) times I've read it, maybe it's the huge poster I have in my dorm room (yes, I have no life), maybe it's the fact that I own four different copies in case of emergency...or maybe it's the fact that I carry my original copy with me at all times, so I'll never be away from it. It's insane, but this book changed my life. It's actually tricky to read now, because my mind says the next word on the page before I read it, so I have the thing stored on memory. I can't even talk about it without getting choked up. So know that you know about how it's such a huge, huge part of me, I hope that speaks for itself. The problem with the book, though, is that many people love it and gush over it because they think it's about flappers and millionaires and hoity-toity New York society and wild parties and therefore totally miss the point, or they HATE it because that's all they think it is, and therefore also miss the point. So the thing is, most people either love this book for what they think it is--wrongly (the glamour & parties) or hate it for the same reasons. In my experience, most people I know fail to "get it" and just like it because it's shiny or whatever. But if you do get it, then I KNOW that you will love it--and for all the right reasons, too. This is my all-time favorite book (maybe I'm being redundant), to the point that it's not even a book to me. It's a part of me. EVERYONE should read it.   hide

This was unexpected. On paper it's precisely the kind of thing I like and I've always been fond of...more

This was unexpected. On paper it's precisely the kind of thing I like and I've always been fond of the "Jazz-age" too. So it was a real shock when, halfway through it, I began to realise it wasn't quite as groovy as I'd been led to believe. By the time I'd finished it I totally reassessed that view. It was worse. I truly wish I could remove all memory of this from my brain. Except of course the memory that I'd read it and hated it. Dull, pretentious, completely unlikeable and unrealistic characters and pretty much nothing happens. For pages at a time. There is no plot. At all. All there is is incredibly beautiful passages of description which not only borders on the purple, but buys a whole tin of paint and dips the roller straight in. So what? If it's not ABOUT anything then it's about as appealing as looking at some really well-designed wallpaper. It's incredibly well-written. It's also incredibly over-rated. I can see why it was popular at the time, lots of award winning and briefly fashionable books ARE after all. Most of them don't get the long-term label "classic" stuck to their dust-jackets though. This has. I'm not entirely sure why. It is my contention that a classic really ought ot have more than one string to it's bow - that is it ought to have a good, intriguing plot, realistic and lifelike (not necessarily likeable) characters, a real sense of taking you to the time and/or place and be well-written. The characters are cardboard cut-outs, utterly unconvincing and unlikeable besides - that means you truly couldn't care less about what happens to them. Yes, it evokes the period, but in a hollow way. The only real area it succeeds in is that of writing. But without all the other aspects it's writing about nothing, which is dull. I've heard that the "style over substance" nature of the book is intended to be a critique of the culture of 1920s America. Hmmmm. That's a pretty convenient get-out clause isn't it? Write a story without a soul, without something to connect to emotionally, then claim that this is precisely the point. Keep a straight face. If you are believed then artistic credibility beckons. Oh, contrary to popular claims - it only gets worse on repeated reading. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. I just wanted to make sure there was at least ONE mostly negative review.    hide

***SPOILER ALERT***This is one of the novels I think of as American classics along with "Catcher in...more

***SPOILER ALERT***This is one of the novels I think of as American classics along with "Catcher in the Rye", "On the Road", and "Huck Finn". It tells us the story of a self made man who throws great parties at his mansion on Long Island soul with the sole purpose of attracting the woman he loved and lost before he went off to serve in the War. She has married another man and also lives on Long Island sound - a fact known to Gatsby and the reason he lives there. He finally makes contract again with the woman via the narrator who is his neighbour and her cousin. The times recounted in novel tell of a great deal of wildness - the parties at Gatsby's house are massive with stage stars and entertainers but none of them are really his friend. The people portrayed are the rich and they seem very careless just as the narrator accuses his tennis playing girlfriend of being. Gatsby is a very mysterious character which adds to the allure some people think he is German, others think he killed someone - as mentioned non of them really know him and many attendees haven't actually met him. In the end Gatsby kills himself after he runs over a woman with his car and he realizes he will never be with the woman he loves. She and her husband retreat to their lives of wealth.   hide

I've just finished reading The Great Gatsby, and i LOVED it! As with all of my favourite novels,...more

I've just finished reading The Great Gatsby, and i LOVED it! As with all of my favourite novels, it was completely different to how i had expected it be, a real surprise. Gatsby is at once a stubborn, self-indulgent man, and yet incredibly vulnerable and strangely lovable. He is the underdog whose single-minded determination to better himself is the classic ideal of the 'American Dream'. And yet, this is no 'God bless America' story of good triumphing over evil, of the poor man finding happiness in a land of opportunity, of 'truth, justice, and the American way'. Instead, it's Fitzgerald questioning the true meaning of the American Dream, and indeed whether it really exists. I got the impression of a writer somewhat disillusioned with 1920's America, and almost disgusted at the flippant attitude towards others of the wealthy chattering-classes. The writing is beautiful and perfectly paced, all written from the point of view of Nick Carraway, an emigre of the mid-west to New York, who we would suspect is based more than loosely on Fitzgerald himself. This deserves its accreditation as one of the great American novels. It's a study of America, and Americanism, and just exactly what those terms mean to a person living not only in the 1920's, but in the America of today.    hide