The Great Gatsby/Cassettes

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Summary: Fitzgerald The Great
Review: The Great Gatsby's deceptively ephemeral story is not so much the deserved masterpiece of one of our most gifted writers as it is the stunning illusion of a great magician. In that, it is a literary portal that allows us to peer into the narrow lives of a small band of the bored and privileged. It is both a metaphor of its age and an uncanny prognostication of our current malaise. So where's the magic? When one steps back from the book, there's no plot, the characters are rather bland, they don't do anything particularly interesting, and what they do accomplish in the very short timespan we spend with them is so trivial or mean that we are left wondering why we enjoyed the book so much. The answer lies in the fact that magic is never about the rabbit; rather, it is about the empty hat. Fitzgerald The Great's magic wand is the English language, his scarf the shadows cast by limelight, and we, his vaudville audience in our straw hats and bowlers, are mesmerized by his amazing show.

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Summary: This is one of the best books I've ever read!
Review: Upon reading The Great Gatsby, I loved it! I was forced to read it for my AP English class, and don't regret it one bit! Fitzgerald has a way of drawing you into the book, so that you can't seem to put it down! My emotions were constantly changing...anger when I learned of Tom's affair, mystery of the man known as Gatsby (before he is introduced by Nick), and hope when it seems that Nick and Jordan might just hit it off. It seemed a bit strange that you never really know how Daisy is feeling, but Fitzgerald obviously wanted it that way. Once I learned how much the book really related to his [Fitzgerald's] life, it took on a whole new meaning...in my opinion fulfilling the comment that it's his greatest work ever. I recommend this book to all! Two thumbs up!!!!

Rating:
Summary: It Gets No Better
Review: Truly outstanding. Memorable in many ways: characters, symbolism, writing style. While this book isn't as memorable to me as Lord of the Rings, because I read this at an older age and it didn't effect my life in the same way, there are no books BETTER than this. If you have any hesitations, read it.

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Summary: The Perfect American Novel
Review: I'd like to emphasize that The Great Gatsby is not the best or greatest American Novel, but that it is a perfect one. Contradiction? Not really, because The Great Gatsby completely encapsulates what it is like to be American, particularly in the 1920s. It perfectly illustrates all the qualities that people fear and admire in the American people: ambition, power, privilege. Its flaws don't qualify it as the "greatest," but it is still pretty amazing! A lot of reviewers dissed this novel because of the "ordinary" plot, supposedly reminiscent of a soap opera. Well, where do you think all those soap operas (and movies, etc.) got their plots from? For better or worse, Fitzgerald and his contemporaries recreated the modern novel, just as Shakespeare (another high school nemesis, I'm sure) recreated theatre. Without Fitzgerald, we wouldn't have Douglas Coupland, or Jack Kerouac, or a host of other writers who, directly or indirectly, were influenced by Fitzgerald's clear writing, time-line crossing, sense of emotion. Granted, many inferior writers (like the soap opera ones, and by the way, how do you know soap opera plots, anyway?) have taken Fitzgerald's innovations and created awful versions. But what can you do? Originals always spawn copies.

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Summary: Best book I've ever read
Review: This is positively the best book I have ever read in my life. I was assigned this book to read during my junior year in high school, and although I read it on a schedule due to the tests, I looked forward to reading it everyday, and I loved discussing the book. This is such a great book about romanticism, how Gatsby would stoop to gaining riches from bootlegging, to impress the woman of his dreams~Daisy Buchanan. Tragic ending, especially with the funeral, but it's still the best book Fitzgerald ever wrote, hands down.

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Summary: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..........
Review: Oops, sorry about that ! I seem to have fallen asleep again. Wonderful book for insomnia this....zzzzzzzzz

Rating:
Summary: STILL a great work of literature.
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald did with Great Gatsby in literature what Orson Welles did with Citizen Kane in film: he made something sweet and sublime and simple and complex and brilliant. Fitzgerald effectively describes with a few words what other authors would squander pages on, and his prose still manages to be smooth and flowing. And what's not to understand? The love, the murder, the partying? You can find the same things at your average weekend kegger. The difference is, in THe Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows the American people for what they were, and still are today- greedy excessive, and self-centered. Which is why Gatsby is still a great novel.

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Summary: The book is a good starting point for reading Fitzgerald.
Review: This book, while not as good as Tender is the Night, is an exellent book. It shows just how shallow the wealthy class was and still is.

Rating:
Summary: one true masterpiece
Review: this truly is a masterpiece! it's so understanding, so humorous and yet so poignant..if you donT like it at first reading, you should try again! and j.gatsby is the most unforgettable character..

Rating:
Summary: I couldn't help but wanting to put this book down!
Review: I read The Great Gatsby for school in my American Lit. class, and I never wanted to come home and read it. Fitzgerald uses to much symbolism and to many big words, so it keeps you from being focused on the plot. I don't reccomend this book to anyone, expecially to any teenagers.