Rating: 
Summary: great
Review: "Isn't it pretty to think so?" Somehow that sentence captured my attention, and I began to picture young rich Americans from the jazz age.Reading this book at an age,beyond high school, made me re-think American literture and its contribution to intellectualism.
Rating:
Summary: Take it in context
Review: The thing with reading classics (there's that word again) is that they really must be taken in the historical context they were created. At the time Fitzgerald wrote GG, large hefty books were the norm (think, 800 pages). They also had convoluted plots and usually didn't really hang together. Enter Gatsby. With its fresh and exciting voice, its short form, and its timeless story, it stood out, and still does today. And thanks to Scribners and Max Perkins for recognizing that this book was different. My reading list of recommendations: Great Gatsby
Of Mice and Men
Bark of the Dogwood
Catch 22
Slaughter House Five
To Kill a Mockingbird
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, lame characters.
Review: OK - so it's a "classic" book. Great story, wonderfully rich prose and fantastic imagery. You might even say it was an allegory of its time. And you might even call it The Great American Novel. It even has a tragic ending. My only real beef with this book is with the characters. First off, what is up with the lame protagonist Jay Gatsby? Is he for real? What a plonker. He is every bit as wet as Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights. I thought those kind of wimps only existed in ye olde English literature but here is another one of these love-sick fools turning up in American literature. What this genre of classic literature needs is a hero who really knows how to sweep a girl off her feet. A man who races motorcycles at dangerously high speeds, knows kung-fu, has a bad attitude, no patience and can find all the cool late night bars. If he has Style and Nice Teeth then so much the better. Now that's a proper hero. What we don't need is another clown who doesn't know how to chat up girls and doesn't have the balls to go after what he wants. Gatsby's problem is that he's a wimp and he doesn't know how to have fun. And what about the other characters? Nick Carraway: what is up with him? He just seems to drift hopelessly through life observing all around him without actually having any sort of impact on the world. Jordan Baker: a hot chick to be sure, but also stuck up and prone to telling porky pies. Daisy Buchannan: uninspiring, boring and wishy-washy No real hero would waste his time with her. Great read but a shame I couldn't identify with any of the characters. In fact I didn't really care a damn for any of them. And it certainly didn't make me want to live that version of the American Dream.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: I recently read the book "The Great Gatsby". The book is the all-american novel for everyone. The Great Gatsby should not sit on a book shelf. The book is the most esquisit book I have read to date. The book deals with all aspects of love and the trials of life. "The Great Gatsby" Is a text that a person can read a chapter and then leave it laying there for more than a day. Since the author is so descriptive, it made me feel like I was in the story. I felt like I was a part of thier lifes.I could refer back to the text and compare my life with thier life. This book is inspirational to all people including young new writers. The book has to be one of the best books out there. I reconmend this book to everybody.
Rating:
Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: I recently read the book "The Great Gatsby". The book is the all-american novel for everyone. This book should not sit on a book shelf. The book is the best book I have read to date. The book deals with all aspects of love and the trials of life. "The Great Gatsby" Is a book that a person can read a chapter and then leave it laying there for more than a day. Since the book is so descriptive, it made me feel like I was in the book. I felt like I was a part of thier lifes.I could refer back to the text and compare my life with thier life. This book is inspirational to all people including young new writers. The book has to be one of the best books out there. I reconmend this book to everybody.
Rating: 
Summary: Wealthy
Review: I had to read The Great Gatsby for my 11th grade English class. Now I have read the book four times, and I have yet to understand what makes this novel receive all the praise it does. The plot is like a Beverly Hills 90210 episode in the 1920s. The plot is that Gatsby loved a beautiful socialite Daisy way back when. Then Gatsby had to leave for the war, though Daisy promised to wait for him. Unfortunately, Daisy didn't wait and married the overtly rich Tom Buchanan instead. So Gatsby accumulated all this wealth and stature in hopes of winning back Daisy. There are two problems here though. One, Gatsby doesn't love Daisy, he loves what she stands for, money, power and social standing. Two, Daisy doesn't love Gatsby, she is too vapid and shallow and only loves men with money (and when she first met Gatsby he told her he was wealthy, which at the time was a lie) which is why she married Tom instead of waiting for Gatsby. I also had a problem with Nick as the narrator. If this was supposed to be a story of Gatsby and Daisy why on earth do we care about who he is having lunch with or what the weathers like? Also, when things happened, like Tom breaking Myrtle's nose, Nick didn't seem to care he just told the reader about it and them went on to something else ("The sky was shining blue as bright as a diamond"..blah blah blah) Upon reading the reviews here I noticed that many kids like me also had to read this book and most them didn't like it. I don't hate this book and I'm not going off on one of those "This was so boring!" tangents. My problem was with the characters. Daisy was a vapid, shallow money loving gold digger. I couldn't understand why any man would love her. Gatsby spent so much time trying to live up to the measures of a women who would never really love him unless he was made out of gold. Tom was a hypocritical, racist, sexist punk. Jordan was a lying, cheating loser. If they are examples of being wealthy, of fulfilling the American dream (in this book is to do what? Become a bored snob?) then I don't think its really worth it.
Rating:
Summary: add on to my comment earlier
Review: I forgot to mention as well that the "tangents" that Nick went on weren't tangents. They represent important things in the book. Weather and time are very important symbols. Weather, especially when Daisy, Jordan, Tom and Nick went to the Plaza Hotel, represented tempers flaring as the heat got more intense. Time represented Gatsby trying to change the past. F. Scott Fitzgerald doesn't just waste space by writing about unimportant things;everything he writes has a meaning. Next time when you read a book, please don't comment on it unless you read it correctly. Don't appear foolish.
Rating:
Summary: this is to jessie, from fairfield, conneticut
Review: Jessie, what you said about the book is totally untrue. I am a junior in highschool who has recently finished reading this book. I happen to believe that you are older than me and yet, I understood the book better than you. Why don't you read it a little more carefully next time? There aren't any unanswered questions. Gatsby's work is subtely mentioned in the book after Gatsby's death when Nick picks up a phone call that was meant for Gatsby. On page 174, Nick is confused by what the man on the other line wants from Gatsby. "'Young Parke's in trouble,' he said rapidly. 'They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter.'" It goes on to tell how it actually happened. If one read closely enough, it is obvious that Gatsby was not a bootlegger, as believed by Tom, but a white collar criminal who created counterfeit bonds.
I also do not enjoy seeing comments like "teenagers don't appreciate books, read it when you grow up," because I really liked the book and am sure that many other teenagers appreciate it too.
Rating:
Summary: You're the top
Review: This is one of the ultimate in reading experiences. It's not a long book, but Fitzgerald manages to pack in just about every literary trick in this novella. And I don't mean that in a cheap way, for he very deftly creates a masterpiece of a story that in any other writer's hands would be "pulp." But a big thanks should probably go to Max Perkins, the editor, who helped shape this and so many other books. My reading list of must haves? The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Bark of the Dogwood
Catch 22
Of Mice and Men
Slaughter House Five
Rating:
Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: The Great Gatsby is about a man named Nick Carraway who moves to New York. He ends up renting a small cottage next to a mansion, which is occupied by the man who gives his name to the book, Jay Gatsby. This story takes place during what was known as the "roaring twenties" when everyone seemed to get rich quick. People who weren't there to experience it first hand seem to see it as a time when everyone got rich, went to speakeasies and consumed alcohol illegally. F. Scott Fitzgerald seems to think that the twenties were an era of possibility, aspiration and achievement. Gatsby is a deep, mysterious character that has secretly loved Nick's second cousin, Daisy Buchanan, since they used to date five years before the story takes place. In the present, Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, and they have a young daughter. Tom has a mistress, who is also married, and Gatsby takes the opportunity to win back Daisy's heart.
Like Gatsby, I've made the mistake of thinking I wasn't good enough for someone and that they wouldn't accept me just the way I was. Jay Gatsby took it to a higher level than I when he lied about his upbringing and basically "wrote his own story." It is heartbreaking to think that someone won't accept you for who you really are. It hurts when people see your flaws and imperfections as what makes them better than you instead of viewing those flaws as what makes you human. This book, narrated by Nick, who said, "I am one of the few honest people I have ever known," brought me to the realization that people should not be ashamed of their past and the details of their less than perfect lives and instead learn to love them because it is what makes us who we are.
The Great Gatsby accentuates the idea that ambition is a strong virtue. It reminds us that when you strive to become the best and you want it bad enough, you'll get it. Our lives should be about turning ambition into success instead of material things and status. We need to achieve happiness in our own lives before we try and be happy with someone else. This book is a good choice for a romantic and someone who needs motivation, like I did, to be proud of their flaws and their uniqueness.
I would recommend this book to other people with hope that they get a message from it. A visual mind will see the story as a result of the description used. I would also recommend this book to someone who needs a reminder that success is achieved by ambition and hard work, and that all people, as perfect as they may seem, have details in their lives that they find faulty.
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