The Great Gatsby

Rating:
Summary: You Should Have Already Read This
Review: 'The Great Gatsby' is the best book I've ever read. It is as close to perfect a book as you'll ever find. From the story itself to the characters to the locations, everything seems exactly the way it should be. Fitzgerald's words flow off the page seemingly effortlessly.

'Gatsby' is the story of a man, Gatsby, who never gives up his love for a woman, Daisy. It is narrated by Gatsby's neighbor and Daisy's relative Nick. Other colorful characters weave their way in and out of the story. The tragic ending, present in all good dramas, is used to great effect here.

If you haven't read this book yet, you should be ashamed. Buy it now, and make it your next read. You will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel
Review: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel set in 1920s New York City that precisely captures the mood and tenor of what came to be known as the Jazz Age. The story focuses on the flashily affluent Jay Gatsby, who made his fortune through dubious means, his more modest neighbor Nick, Nick's captivating cousin Daisy Buchanan and her wealthy husband Tom. Gatsby hopes to use his material success to win the adoration of Daisy, who happens to be a love from his past, before he went off to war. However, Gatsby ends up paying a heftier price - his life - for the girl he has passionately but secretly pursued through the years.
On the surface, The Great Gatsby seems like a book designed solely for leisure reading purposes. But dig beneath that surface, and the reader excavates some philosophical themes. For example, since Daisy did not marry Gatsby at the time of their affair because he lacked wealth, when Gatsby returns from the war, he is intent upon making a fortune in order to lure her back to him. His efforts ultimately doom him, reflecting the dour consequences of material obsession. Additionally, Gatsby's fervent focus on Daisy after so many years have lapsed exposes the peril inherent in clinging too closely to far-fetched fancies.
But while Fitzgerald deftly works these themes, sometimes his commentary on the moral substance of his characters is ambiguous. He appears to revel in Jazz Age excesses, as portrayed in Gatsby's elaborate parties and in the characters' periodic jaunts to the city. Yet, through the sober-minded narration of Nick, Fitzgerald also seems to indict Gatsby for his ostentacious display of wealth. Furthermore, Fitzgerald draws Gatsby in a dualistic way - he simultatenously shows him as a man of principle and as a starry-eyed fool for persistently pursuing Daisy. But perhaps Fitzgerald simply wants us to make up our own minds about Gatsby rather than preach to us, or maybe he wants to show how human weaknesses can serve as strengths and vice versa, depending on the scenario.
The character of Nick is credibly drawn; he represents temperance, but also passivity, as he appears to float on the fringes of his friends' lives rather than actively indulge in them. Indeed, as narrator, Nick allows us to see the story through his eyes, and while we never lack insight into his feelings, we also never feel pressured to see things his way; Nick's tone is calmly questioning rather than priggishly pedantic.
Tom Buchanan as a vapidly wealthy and viciously philandering spouse is artfully conceived; whether he's flaunting his latest love at a party or speaking haughtily about the menaces of black economic progress, reader disdain for Tom is never far from the surface.
But it's Daisy Buchanan who steals the show in The Great Gatsby; a mishmash of contradictions, Daisy exudes a sultry charm that masks a profound restiveness with her current lifestyle. She wants desperately to break free from her stifling circumstances, and Gatsby provides the catalyst for her to do so. Yet, she is constrained by convention, and Fitzgerald permits us to feel the tragic dimensions of her fate throughout the story. This tragedy is never more apparent than when at a tense gathering that includes Gatsby, she reluctantly (and not altogether believably) concedes that she has loved Tom, despite her earlier assertions to the contrary.
The Shakespearean conclusion of The Great Gatsby will seem heavy-handed to some, while other readers will embrace it as a logical culmination of a story infused with melodrama. But one thing is certain: The Great Gatsby will leave an indelible impression on readers with its instructive themes, intriguing plot, and realistically drawn characters.

Rating:
Summary: Rightfully Deemed an American Masterpiece
Review: I first read this one years ago, in high school I believe, and I liked it well enough then. But it was soon eclipsed in my mind by Joyce's works. And Hemingway's. Against the works of these latter authors, Fitzgerald's GATSBY seemed to me to be rather ordinary, old fashioned if you will . . . albeit a nicely honed piece of prose.

There is, indeed, a certain artifice to the Gatsby story which smacks of the writer's intentions, an intrusive "plottiness" reflecting coincidences which are not at all the way things really work in life. And yet for all that, the story is strongly told, moving and lyrical, and the characterizations, as I found on re-reading the novel at my wife's urging, far more subtle than I recalled from my high school days. GATSBY is the story of a mystery man who dreams of a wealthy debutante he met years before, when he was an impoverished young soldier, and whose entire life since has been dedicated to winning her. To do this he has earned millions of dollars in the heyday of racketeering and prohibition (how is never quite made clear) and, at the time the novel is set, is engaged in creating an upper class persona for himself, in order to be worthy of the woman he loves.

Of course, as Fitzgerald, through his narrator, the Midwestern transplant and aspiring bond salesman, Nick Carraway, shows, it is not Gatsby who needs to be made worthy at all. There is a certain melodrama to the tale which kind of blunted the edge for me but, on balance, the overwrought tragic overtones in the careless hit and run accident that brings all to a head are more than balanced out by the insight vouchsafed to us by Nick when he tells Gatsby, near the end, that the whole lot of them are not worth Gatsby alone. Gatsby wanders off distractedly to meet his undeserved destiny, thereafter, and Nick remains to pick up the pieces, packing up and returning home to the Midwest in disgust, and something akin to despair, at the human condition when, at last, the full import of what has occurred comes home to him.

Fitzgerald had set out to craft a gem with this novel and he succeeded. Though it has flaws, the powerful insight and the polished, lyrical prose more than make up for them, setting this book firmly in the constellation of great American novels.

SWM

Rating:
Summary: What it means to be an American
Review: After living abroad in the Middle East for a year and traveling through more than twenty-five countries, I recently re-read The Great Gatsby, seeking the familiarity of America. The Great Gatsby captures what is different about Americans and the American experience. At its most basic, America represents endless striving for greatness. Whether in business, science, athletics or world affairs, Americans imagine and seek the best. Though we often stumble and fall short; though we often cut corners to achieve our dreams - striving for greatness is the essence of America. In Gatsby, we feel what it is like to want something so badly, to succeed in reaching it and to ultimately fail. How many of us have not shared these experiences in some way or another? American writings today, such as David Ebershoff's Pasadena (2002) and Scott Gaille's The Law Review (2002), continue to explore Gatsby's central theme of obsession with greatness. In this time of global uncertainty, we can get back in touch with what it means to be an American by reading such books.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves Its High Rank
Review: The story takes place in the early 1920's on Long Island. The narrator is Nick Carraway who has just arrived from the Midwest to work as a bond salesman. He visits his cousin Daisy who is married to a wealthy college acquaintance named Tom Buchanan. Nick also soon meets his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who has made a fortune through questionable means and has moved to Long Island in an attempt to revive an old romance with Daisy.

Gatsby knew Daisy before World War I.

At Gatsby's suggestion, Nick arranges a reunion between the two former lovers. As the romance is rekindled a tragedy unfolds involving Gatsby, Nick, Daisy, Tom and Tom's mistress as well as her husband.

THE GREAT GATSBY is a short book but Fitzgerald manages to create some complicated and interesting characters. Of course the most intriguing is Gatsby who is an incorrigible romantic dreamer with an insane desire to relive the past.

THE GREAT GATSBY is also an entertaining book which deserves its high rank among American novels written during the early part of the last century.

Rating:
Summary: A splendid melee of Jazz Age lifestyle
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald had set out write a simple novel depicting the Jazz Age's misinterpreted lifestyles and emptiness. Not only did he complete this task, but he did so within the bounds of a simplistic literary masterpiece. Rarely does a work of such quality tend to be simple and light, and still get an emotionally heavy and confused message to the readers.

Nick is our narrator in Fitzgerald's namesake title. Spoken in retrospect, we only recieve one view of the people and places described outside of dialogue. This is important in realizing what sort of person Jay Gatsby was, as we only see him through Nick's eyes, he may have established himself as different sort to his other 'friends.'
Nick moves himself to West Egg Staton Island after military obligations and into the house neighboring one Jay Gatsby, who shared the ranks with Nick in the first World War. The Great Gatsby throws extravagant parties and rarely do his guest take time to acknowledge their host. Nick finds himself caught in the line of love, when Gatsby reveals his purpose for the house on the sound and the life of parties. They were all a lure, a bait, to bring one Daisy Buchanon to his home. Daisy happens also to be Nick's cousin. When Tom Buchanon realizes Gatsby's intent Daisy is caught in the witness's satand in a debate of devotion. Tom, who hasn't always been true to Daisy, finds a crowd about the home of his mistress as he passes it with Nick and Jordan, another aquaintance of the lot, riding in his coupe. She had been struck by a car as she attempted to halt the oncoming driver. Daisy was the driver, but Tom convinced the unknowing mistress' husband that Gatsby was behind the wheel. Mr. Wilson went hunting for Gatsby, he found him by his poolside and murdered him, then Wilson ended his own life.
Nick felt strangely obligated to organize Gatsby's funeral. Jay was an Oxford man, a self-made millionaire without a real friend in the world. He never took time befriend another, due to his obsession with Daisy. Thus, no one save Gatsby's father showed up. Of all the guests and aquaintances of Jay Gatsby, two were at his funeral and none would inherit his wealth.

"They smashed up things and creatures, and then they reatreated back into their vast carelessness, or their wealth or whatever it was that kept them together." -said of Tom and Daisy, and their wreckless, excess and insecure partnership.

Rating:
Summary: Seldom Understood By The Teen Audience, But still important
Review: This book is a literary classic. This is not difficult for many to recognize, but often this book is used as a required reading assignment in high school and teens don't get the "Big Picture."

TGG was assigned to me while in highschool. I made a mad dash for the bookstore to get the Cliff's Notes. I BS'd my way through a book report and put the class behind me.

I just read the book for a college english class. I'll reiterate what a wonderful book it is.
I am left feeling like I should in fact have read it in highschool instead of opting for the Cliff's Notes. Reading the book in highschool and then again in college would have allowed me to draw a wonderful parallel. I wish I was able to look back on my views in high school and compare them to my opinions of the book today.

Reading TGG in highscool and then in college gives you an oppurtunity to see your maturation first hand!

Rating:
Summary: a cumbersome bore.
Review: I had to read this book as an assignment, and I found the language cumbersome, and difficult to read. The last chapter says it all, the rest is filler. It is considered a literary masterpiece according to the preface. What makes it a masterpiece is the rewrite Fitzgerald did to make it so boring. It is a tale of monied people leaving shattered lives behind for someone else to pick up, but written with priggish, even highhanded prose.

Rating:
Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: I really enjoyed and would highly recommend reading The Great Gatsby. Overall, it was an easy read, and for the most part, a light-hearted, entertaining story. It had an interesting plot with remarkable characters to support it. Even though it was written almost a century ago, it is still easy to appreciate Fitzgerald's ideas and style of writing.
The book was very well written for many reasons. I liked the fact that it was a first person narrative. I personally enjoy first person novel because I think that the insight of the narrator makes the reader relate to the story more, as opposed to the neutral position of a third person story. The narrative offered details vivid enough to easily imagine the setting. I was not familiar with the setting in New York, but the descriptiveness was clear enough for me to picture the scenes. Also, the writing style was excellent at using setting as a device to convey emotion, and in a few instances, foreshadowing. The plot is fast moving and I really enjoyed the unexpected plot twist towards the end. The small side plots that arose between the supporting characters sustained my interest also. The story was very much to the point, and did not at any time drag on.
The strongest part of the writing was the development, connections, and introduction of the characters. Nick Cattaway fits the role of the narrator perfectly and provides a central connection among all the other characters. It allowed me to feel more sympathetic towards the characters because of Nick's sympathy for his friends. The order in which he introduces the characters and then slowly revealed how their lives were intertwined made for a very interesting story. My favorite of the introductions was the surprisingly low key intro to Gatsby. However, this character was the only one that I wasn't satisfied with, and proved to be the only flaw I found with the book.
The lack of development of the character of Gatsby was very disappointing for me. After such a unique entrance, in addition to the title, I expected much more than the book offered. Although more is revealed about Gatsby as the story progresses, I still didn't feel a connection to the character. Since Gatsby was intended to be a mysterious character, that may be the reason the lack of information about him. However, there seemed to be a true depth missing that was hinted at, but was never fully communicated. This was especially true in the relationship between Gatsby and Daisy. The intensity of Gatsby's feelings seemed to be glanced over.
Besides that minor negative point, the book was very good, and as a said before I recommend it to anyone looking for a short but enjoyable book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Still Great
Review: Many years have passed (alas!) since I read this American classic in college. So, I decided to give myself a treat and reread. Here is some of my marginalia: "Not a great paragraph. Nice image and flow. Could Gatsby be so successful while being such a clumsy liar? Anti-Semitic image. Great scene. Great chapter. Thought is confused. Another terrific chapter." So, what am I saying? Fitzgerald writes with flawless lyricism when the subject is money and society. But when his subject doesn't evoke this lyrical mood, his writing can become choppy while his attitude toward certain types of people becomes superficial and harsh. Regardless, it's amazing the book is nearly eighty years old, since it still conveys what many people probably regard as a contemporary experience. My advice: Read Gatsy again!