By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Published originally in 1922
180 pages
Completed January 18, 2013
In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write “something new–something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.” That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald’s finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald’s–and his country’s–most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. “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–” Gatsby’s rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.
It’s also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby’s quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means–and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. “Her voice is full of money,” Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel’s more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy’s patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.
Where do I start? This book confused me, bored me, put me sleep, made me dislike the 20′s, and I can’t believe it is a movie! Don’t waste your time. I saw it through to the end because that is the way I am. That’s it.
At least you had the perseverance to complete this work, despite its lack of appeal for you. I don’t ever plan to re-read my paperback copy with a picture of Redford/Farrow adorning the front of it. However, his long short story or novella, titled May Day, had a lot of levels of activity going on in it, and it fully captured my attention and interest. You might like it better than Gatsby.
I was hoping that they wouldn’t all be bad! Thank you!
You’re welcome and I’m glad to have something positive to say about Fitzgerald’s, May Day, a work that bowled me over. But I advise to steer clear of his, Tender is the Night, also, even with its good title taken from Keats.
I kind of had negative vibes about this book, then your review got me thinking, “OK, maybe I was wrong and should give it a chance” — until I got to the end. LOL! It doesn’t sound interesting at all — I wonder why it is such a classic?
The beginning of all my reviews are descriptions of the book I take from Goodreads.com. (in italics) then I write my short opinion of the story. I too felt it would be a good book. oh well…