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Summary: A Masterpiece Only Fitzgerald Could Write
Review: What more can be said about this extraordinary work? It truly has everything--the universal American themes of success and money, finely drawn characters, perhaps the most doomed love story ever written, and finally, a bitterly tragic ending. I first read this book over 30 years ago at a time when I was first discovering Fitzgerald's genius. However, I have since found myself coming back to it again and again. The mood Fitzgerald's words generate is like nothing else I've ever experienced in literature, with the possible exception of the writings of Isak Dinesen. In "Gatsby", a sense of impending doom seems to loom over the entire story. Here you have a hero whose only goal in life is winning the love of a boundlessly shallow and self-centered woman who can never be worthy of his affections. Daisy's persona, combined with the world of money and carelessness that has produced her and her kind, can only lead to tragedy for Gatsby. A masterpiece ...
Rating: 
Summary: What's the big fuss?
Review: This probably sounds like heresy given it's reputation, but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why "The Great Gatsby" is universally considered one of the greatest novels written in the English language during the 20th Century. I've read it twice trying to figure it out; I'm still at a loss. Just not my cup of tea I guess. To me the story completely lacks drama. I'm not saying Fitzgerald can't write, I'm simply saying that the plot and characters are just plain boring. Stringing words together in a pleasing way is very different from telling an interesting story -- the main reason we read, of course. I feel completely uninvolved, distanced from time, setting, characters, conflict and plot. I couldn't care less what happens. And after two readings I barely remember any of it. I don't think it's that I'm not "smart enough" or "cultured enough" to get it, I can after all, appreciate the likes of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, etc. I'm not some philistine. I do hold advanced degrees and have read many other books of equally great reputation. Fitzgerald just doesn't make me care about these people for some reason.
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Summary: El Terrible
Review: This book was God awful. I felt so disappointed when i read that gatsby was murdered. I felt as if the world collapsed on me as i read this catastrophic event. Gatsby is the miz an and daisy is a sliz to the iz ut. Scott Fitzgerald i wish u were alive so i could kill u. Love DGS!!!
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Summary: Fantastic.. but what about the ending?
Review: Scott Fitzgerald has been showered with praise and celebrated as one of the great authors of the century, and deservedly so. His language is remarkable because he uses quite an extensive vocabulary with the utmost precision, and is able to create vivid characters with a few succint phrases, a few strokes of the artist's brush. However, there are two things that strike me as odd in this novel: the "prologue", that is, the first few paragraphs, which must have been written after the rest of the novel had been completed. This is a strange and ambiguous opening, and I am not sure that it is very good. And secondly the ending itself, because closure is brought about by introducing an accident (Daisy running over Tom's mistress). Somehow this is not satisfactory, at least not to me, because it avoids a final confrontation between the characters. Here Fitzgerald may as well have sent down a bolt of lightning to kill someone! People's fates in literature should be decided by themselves or by some other character, not by something beyond anyone's control. Why? Because that negates that character is fate and action; in fact, EVERYTHING in a novel should stem from character.
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Summary: Gatsby is Truly Great
Review: What a joy it has been to return to a book such as "The Great Gatsby" after an absence of thirty years. I last read this book as a teenager and, although I enjoyed it then, it is a real delight to an adult. In essence, the book outlines the life and lifestyle of Jay Gatsby who lived on Long Island near New York City in the 1920s. His background is shrouded in some mystery with various reports that he has been a killer, a bootlegger and a fixer of baseball's 1919 World Series. However, the key to his background is unrequited love for Daisy Buchanan who he knew at the time of the First World War and before he was sent away to France. Unfortunately, during his wartime absence, Daisy has married someone else and Gatsby is left yearning for her company. He throws vast and extravagant parties in the hope that Daisy might drop by and their love can be rekindled. His love rules his life as, across the water from his house, he can see the distant green light at the end of the pier at Daisy's home. This distant light epitomises his love for Daisy; it is far away yet still burning. Without wrecking the plot for those readers who may not be so familiar with the book, Gatsby's life ends with pain and misery and no renewal of love. In this sense, the book takes on the character of a Shakespearean tragedy. I can recommend this book to all readers of great fiction. "The Great Gatsby" has a timeless quality. It has endured for decades so far and will endure for many more to come.
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Summary: American Classic
Review: The book is an American Classic, although my title most likely is not. I haven't even read any of the other reviews, but I would wager a large sum of money that at least one, if not serveral, contains the words American and classic. I have struggled long and hard and write a review for my all-time favorite book. I just never felt that I could do it justice. I doubt anyone really can. Part of the reason why I feel that this book is the American Classic is because it elevates American Literature to a level that few other novels can bring it. Just read the book and avoid the movie.
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Summary: Novel Is Great In Spite of the Hype
Review: Some works of art are so engrained in our popular consciousness that it's almost impossible to judge them without the interference of all our collective baggage we bring as we approach them. Gatsby is a classic example. Having read the novel ten times over the last twenty years, I have enjoyed a certain distance and just as importantly the opportunity to compare different impressions at different stages of my life. The result is that I am even more impressed with the novel than all the annoying hype and commotion that continues to follow the novel would allow me to have. Without boring you about all the themes that have been hashed over and over, I would like to point out that there is a great question the novel asks us: Why does the narrator Nick have sympathy for Gatsby while loathing all the other chasers of the American Dream? It seems that Gatsby is a contradictory fellow, part ruthless dreamer zealously selling his soul to afford himself the trappings of fame, popularity, and glory. However, Gatsby, unlike the other ambitious characters in this novel, has a certain innocence and vulnerbility. Also, he is a true believer in his own delusion that if he can live a life a wealth and afford parties, he will overcome his childhood limitations and win the love of others. It's his craving of others' love that makes him sympathetic. In a way, he's a spiritual cousin of Citizen Kane who, for all his gaudy possessions, simply wanted the unconditional love represented by "Rosebud" on his sled, the embodiment of childhood belonging. Nick the narrator has the sensitivity to see this wounded child in Gatsby and reserves judgment against him. Gatsby's pathological hunger for attention and popularity reminds me of all the people who go on Reality TV shows, hoping to promote themselves and be seen by all, grabbing their fifteen minutes of fame even as they debase themselves in various types of tomfoolery that showcase America's blind ambition and back-stabbing competition. Many years earlier, Fitzgerald saw how dangerous it was to blindly embrace American images of success without self-knowledge and without a moral code to keep us sane and he wrote about this theme so elegantly in Gatsby, a masterpiece that transcends all our limiting preconceptions we bring to it.
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Summary: "Who is this Gatsby?"
Review: This is quite possibly my favorite book in the world. However, I've not finished Tender Is The Night, yet. I've read Gatsby maybe three times, and am now working on my fourth. Each time I fall in love with a different character with thier faults. The book is simply gorgeous. Fitzgerald was a master, despite all his personal faults. I would recommend this to anyone who actually enjoys books. If you're going to read anything ever. First read the Bible, and then I recommend Gatsby.
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Summary: How does this book only get 4 out of 5 stars?
Review: This is the best American book of the 20th century, yet its average review on Amazon is only 4 out 5, and many mysteries get 4.5? What an injustice!
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Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald takes place during the hot New York summer of 1922. On the surface the book is a romance between two estranged lovers, Gatsby and Daisy, but the heart of the book is a metaphor of the time. The symbolism is directly parallel to the disintegration of the American dream. The book is a wonderful read if you like the spider webs Fitzgerald weaves. The Great Gatsby is full of symbolism related to the time period, and a love story that is nothing short of ridiculous. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spend reading The Great Gatsby. The book allowed my imagination to play out wonderful scenes with every page. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about undying love, and the lengths some people will go to obtain their dreams.
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