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Summary: A Great American Novel
Review: When asked what the 'Great American Novel' is, nine times out of ten you'll hear either Twain's Huck Finn or Fitzgerald's Gatsby (one out of ten times you'll hear Kerouac's On the Road). And if this isn't _THE_ Great American Novel, then it comes close to being so. It's a simple story of a love triange. But it is so much more than that. Fitzgerald captures the period of The Jazz Age, and is considered to a certain degree, a social historian, by himself if no one else. What strikes me most about this book is the voice Fitzgerald uses to tell the story. There are a handful of narrators in American fiction whose voice stands out as so good, that it lifts the story above being merely good. Examples are Huck Finn, Holden Caufield, and Nick Carroway.
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Summary: The next Salinger?
Review: I am one of those "freaks" who makes sure to read this novel at least once a year. It brings me a sort of solace.
This is as close to a Salinger novel as one can get. Moral lessons spoken thru New York City in the early 1900's.
In this case we have the author and his 2nd cousin, a worldly woman who steals hearts and refuses to let go.
Gatsby accomplishes everything he can create in his mind, but he cannot compare to what Daisy demands. She is noy human it seems, and Gatsby cannot keep up, no matter how hard he tries.
This novel was required reading in high school, and thank God for that. Even after my 12th grade english teacher pounding into my head the symbolism of the eye-glasses on the billboard in the city of ashes. And also why Gatsby was a "heroic figure".
Basically, this novel ends the only way it can. Death is necessary and we all will perish. But sometimes we die a bit too soon.
No matter where I am in my life, this book always sets me straight. What will be...will be.
Gatsby could not have lived any other way. It's all good.
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Summary: Gatsby is Great
Review: The protagonist takes you through the highs and lows of 20th Century high society. The protagonist, introduced to polite society by an acquaintance (Gatsby), shows you the landmarks and windfalls along the road to dinner parties, and points out the many trappings of culture and conscience that befit a beautiful young fool surfing the upper crust of industrial-age America.Much of this book draws from the writer's own life, as he watched his own wife suffer from many of the same symptoms of society as his book's characters; obsession with the trappings and trimmings of the social elite; greed and spite; treachery and manipulation;alcoholism and insanity. This genuine point of view is distilled by careful selection in a tour de force o the ballroom lifestyle.
The author's style relies heavily upon narrative, and his descriptions are potent. He mingles Western cultural artifacts (billboards, warehouse districts) and signs of life in America's dustbowl (parked cars) to spot the low and high income parts of metropolitan culture like the warm and cold spots in the river. All in all, this is a book which draws its power from subjective interpretation of the narrative; very little is decided for the reader, who feels much like a back-seat passenger in Gatsby's car, listening in and seeing the sights.
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Summary: And Here's Why:
Review: I've read and reread The Great Gatsby for most of my adult life, and it's the greatest American novel because it shows America's endless ability to re-invent itself, and ourselves. Oh sure, that book featuring a young man named Huckleberry Finn by America's greatest writer of all time, Mark Twain comes close, but Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan and Nick Carraway are Everyman, and... well, they don't float rafts down the Mississippi anymore, do they?
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Summary: Beautifully written..
Review: I enjoyed this book. The descriptions were lovely and rich, and Fitzgerald really captured life and put it in this book. It is about a midwesterner named Nick who goes to New York and meets several characters including the rich nextdoor neighbor Jay Gatsby. It then shows the progression of all of these people's relationships until the climax of the book.
My only gripe would be that the characters are quite unlikeable. You can't relate to them. You can't sympathize with them. It's not that they're thinly drawn. They're not flat and two dimensional. One simply has to dislike all of these characters, though! The book would be perfect if I could at least have one character to hang on to, so to speak. Maybe see myself in. Despite that I still have to say it was an exceptional book.
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Summary: A Bigger Pleasure To Read Every Time
Review: I first read The Great Gatsby in high school and I have picked it up and read it again many times since. My first few repeat readings were for the quality of the writing -- the absolute clarity and economy of the words, and the "just right" tone. And I still read The Great Gatsby for the writing, but now with each reading I seem to gain more sympathy for all of the characters -- even the brutish and stupid ones. I finish the story each time feeling that I have lived among those people, smelling their perfume, riding in their cars, dancing at their parties, guessing at their secrets. All these years and all these readings later, I still can't say precisely why Fitzgerald makes me feel this way, but each time I jump back into this wonderfully realized little book I feel as if Nick is beside me on the sofa or across from me at the table, telling me a story I have never heard before. In this day and age when every third or fourth novel is carelessly called a "masterpiece," it is always a pleasure to read Nick's opening words, spoken especially and unambiguously to me, and know what a masterpiece truly is.
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Summary: One of the Greatest Books Ever Written
Review: I had to read this book in high school as a Junior and I didn't really get into it. In fact I really coasted through the book without really following it too closely. I decided to reread it and I was much surprised by how much I liked this novel. Fitzgerald has created a great portrait of a tainted American Dream. Through his character Jay Gatsby we see how the ideals of society have been corrupted. Gatsby made his fortune by dubious means, and pursues irrationally Daisy Buchannan, a very vapid individual who comes to tears over shirts. This is also symbolic of his the futile pursuit of happiness. Though this novel was written in the 20's, the message is still timeless. Anyone who thinks this is dated has not looked at the society we live in. We are practically in another me generation. People today don't have a care in the world. Having recently finished high school and being currently in college I have witnessed the sort of carefree vapid sense that most young people have. They don't have a collective thought in their heads other than drinking and partying. They also don't seem to care who they hurt in the process, sort of like Daisy and Gatsby in the car. The only drawback I can possibly see with this wonderful novel is the technical skills. They aren't great but they don't detract from the story. Fitzgerald does use a limited perspective and he does follow a cohesive plot, so the technical writing isn't too terrible. Overall this is one of the top 10 books I have ever read, and I have read quite extensively. So don't listen to the negative reviews, read this novel and enjoy it.
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Summary: Simplicity is everything in this novel
Review: The Great Gatsby was recently voted as the second greatest english novel of the twentieth century, right behind Ulysses. And no wonder, The Great Gatsby is vintage America. As a panoramic snapshot of the Jazz-Age, The Great Gatsby provides a crystallized glimpse into the age that bore swing dancing, the end of prohibition and the new exhuberance of an America breaking out of the shell of old world puritanism. With poignancy and simple beauty, The Great Gatsby conveys the timeless story of endless love, and the jealousy that eventually murders it. The Great Gatsby is not simply a reflection of its times -- it is perhaps the greatest love story of the century. It is the story of a man who had everything but love, and gave everything for his love of Daisy -- a Marilyn Monroesque goddess who evokes the raw passions of innocence and beauty. The story is not complex -- nor is particularly innovative. What makes this novel a masterpiece is that Fitzgerald associates all these actions with a particular naivety -- the same naivety seen in Nick to Daisy to Gatsby. It is this unbridled ebullience that typifies the era that gave way to a depression which shackled the nation with fear for years to come. And in its particularly austere style, there arises an unmatched elegance, whose words cannot be matched by those who masquarade behind the incomprehensible jargon of "knowledge".
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Summary: AWESOME BOOK ASSIGNED FOR HS CLASS
Review: Over the summer our school assigns a reading list and I picked this book, thinking it would be another boring book, that I probably wouldn't even read. I was wrong, this is a really good book. In addition to being short, under 200 pages, it captures the life of these people, and makes you want to learn about them and their lives. Between the lavish parties at Mr. Gatsby's house, and the affairs, of Tom and Daisy Buchannon, this book will be a fast read for anyone!
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Summary: Good writing...didn't like the plot
Review: I thought this was a well-written book, but I found it disappointing that the characters did not interest me very much. I couldn't really relate to them...they were just not very likable in general.
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