Rating: 
Summary: America the Beautiful, America the Ugly
Review: Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can, says Gatsby. Essentially, this is the prototypical Great American Novel - that old cliche of pop literary culture so often used by writers and laymen alike. The book conflates America's promise of the past, corruption of the present, and hope for the future. It is the beautiful and ugly side of American ambition, optimism, and sense of invincibility that makes so many Americans feel immortal. The story, which Mencken inevitably declared to be a trivial anecdote, is nevertheless an exciting look into twentysomething romanticism. Glamorous parties, nouveuax riche and old money values colliding, the luxury of youthful idleness, whirlwind romance. This is the perfect book for a high school student with dreams. More than anything, this book struck me as a metaphor for timeless American ethos. Gatsby makes the paradoxical attempt to move against the tide of the future to bring back the past. He wants, like so many people, to bring back that magical moment in his life when he thought life was eternal, the world was beautiful, and he was the biggest man in it. He wants to recapture the love that opened a plethora of infinite possibilities, turning his back on the reality of changing times and changing people. Gatsby's greatness is in making himself and others believe the sublime fantasy that thinks itself real. He wants his Daisy as so many other people have wanted theirs - pure, perfect, and existing solely for him. The ambition to defeat life may become tragic, but it never gives up hope - the hope of a better, stronger tomorrow. And in the end, it is action that moves the world, but it is hope that keeps the world alive.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate American Novel
Review: In college, when I asked my literature professor to name the greatest novel of all time, without hesitation, he mentioned Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I then asked what he thought was the tantamount novel by an American. He offered three, Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby. I had already read Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn while I attended high school. However, my high school failed to include The Great Gatsby in its curriculum. I vowed that summer (1993) to read Gatsby. Since then I have read it two more times and savored each subsequent reading. I now understand why The Great Gatsby has received such an exalted position in the literary stratosphere.
After his first two novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald said he wanted to try something "exciting and new." His creation became The Great Gatsby, published in 1925 to modest success. It wasn't until later that Gastby became regarded as Fitzgerald's masterpiece.
The Great Gatsby is a short novel and can be completed in a day or two. The ease of reading The Great Gatsby belies its intricate plot and evocative prose. Gatsby perfectly captures the prosperous, carefree era of the 1920's. The novel appealed to me because of its Long Island setting. East and West Egg are Manhassat and Great Neck. Jay Gatsby, the novel's protagonist, had a love affair with Daisy Buchanan that ended when Gatsby went to fight in World War I. Gatsby lost his fortune thereafter. Daisy married Tom Buchanan while Gatsby was away. To regain Daisy's affections, Gatsby uses unscrupulous means to garner money. Tom Buchanan refers to Gatsby's bootlegging. Gatsby throws lavish parties at his home thinking Daisy might attend. Daisy won't leave her husband, even though she knows he is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, thus creating tension between Gatsby and Tom.
The American dream does not become a reality for everybody. Although Gatsby's wealth can afford him a luxurious house overlooking the Long Island Sound, it's the wrong currency for recapturing Daisy's love. Daisy and Myrtle are both materialistic characters and money clouds their perceptions. Daisy ignores her husband's affair with Myrtle due to Tom's wealth. Although Tom treats her terribly, Myrtle is shallow and only sees Tom's affluence. The Great Gatsby also vividly displays Fitzgerald's adept utilization of foreshadowing and symbolism. The car accident in Gatsby's driveway at the beginning of the novel provides a case in point. When one reaches the end of the novel, this scene will become more poignant.
The late comedian Andy Kaufman, to the consternation of his audience, incorporated a reading of The Great Gatsby into his stand up routine. This is a testament to the stature the novel has attained in the last sixty years. Gatsby is the epitome of the perfect novel. The Great Gatsby has become my favorite novel of all time, with Anna Karenina being a close second. I would recommend everyone read the book before seeing the mediocre Robert Reford film. I like Redford, but I thought he was dreadfully miscast as Jay Gatsby. I hope my high school English teachers now provide The Great Gatsby to their students. They will be treated to a genuine literary masterwork.
Rating: 
Summary: The Great Gatsby distinguishes extraordinary from ordinary
Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a true classic of the 1920's and the affluence of a distinguished facet of society. As a high school student, I am quick to judge any novel I read, yet this one caught my attention and had me wondering the truth about the book's title character, Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald mixes romance and tragedy to create an unforgettable plot which keeps the attention of its audience. It proves that wealth cannot buy happiness and does so with unexpected circumstances that surprised me and kept me on my toes until the tradgic finale. The only unfortunate thing about the book is that it ends and leaves you wanting more. For an intriguing and different read, The Great Gatsby does not disappoint!
Rating:
Summary: "O Venus, and you Cupids, weep..."
Review: One gets the impression from reading the negative reviews
of this novel written in these "modern" times that the
reviewers are refusing to recognize any correlation
between Gatsby and his world -- and themselves and their
own. It seems they would rather mask their own weakness
and vulnerability behind a screen of "objectified"
skepticism and complaints about the "boredom" of the
characters and the the plot. So be it. But it is at
their peril. For in refusing to see, the blind stumble
across the cliff whenever it comes.
It is true, this novel on the first read (and perhaps
at the wrong time in one's life) may seem a surface,
rather than a depth. But with experience, and heartbreak,
shadows and depths appear not only in one's own life
but also in one's understanding and insight into things
which earlier in one's life seemed to make no sense or
to have no real meaning, depth, or interest. Such is
the wonder -- and horror -- of life and living. There are two main types of Idealists who swim in
the shifting, unstable oceans of life. One is the
Romantic Idealist -- moved by visions and fantasies
of beauty (usually for some unattainable female goddess,
who may be a Medusa in disguise), by his luring feelings
and passions, toward some elusive goal of ultimate bliss.
The other is the Classical Idealist -- moved by visions
and dreams of beauty (usually involving some unattainable
male god, who may be Hermes or a malignant Apollo in
disguise), by his luring Reason, divine intuitions,
and mystic desire for melding and absorption toward
communion with the Ideal (the beauty, the power,
the love).
Jay Gatsby is a Romantic Idealist. If that fact is
not understood from the beginning, then all that is
marvelous and miraculous about his metamorphosis --
and "apotheosis" -- cannot fully be understood. What
happens to a dream deferred? What happens to a dream
transmogrified into a nightmare?
What happens when youth, yearning, hopes and dreams
(weighted down from flight by the oppression and depression
of poor beginnings) -- suddenly meets the great
American fantasy of "the Main Chance?" Chapter VI of
this novel is the inner sanctum of the the Temple of
Apollo at Delphi. There we see Jay in his true light.
His fantasies, his future, and his fatality.
"His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful
farm people -- his imagination had never really
accepted them as his parents at all. The truth
was that 'Jay Gatsby' of West Egg, Long Island,
sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.
[Fitzgerald has it wrong -- Jay is a Romantic
Idealist, not a Classical one.] He was a son of
God -- a phrase which, if it means anything,
means just that -- and he must be about his
Father's business, the service of a vast,
vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented
just the sort of 'Jay Gatsby' that a seventeen-
year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to
this conception he was faithful to the end."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald. [with the addition
of a few quotation marks]
Some lines from Catullus seem approprate to Gatsby's
fixation on Daisy. For poor Catullus was as hopelessly
driven for his Lesbia as Jay is for his Daisy:
O sparrow...my Lesbia's darling pet;
Her playmate, whom she loves to let
Perch in her bosom and then tease...
With tantalising fingertips;
Provoking angry little nips
For my "bright beauty" seems to get
A kind of pleasure from these games...
Even relief -- this being HER way,
I think, of damping down the flames
Of passion. I wish I could play
Silly games with you, too, to ease
My worries and my miseries.
--Catullus. So sit under the shade of a nice tree, on a calm
summer afternoon, with a gentle breeze blowing...
let the air caress your dreams...read this haunting,
sad, seductive novel...and meet me later by the pool.
And I will show you folly in the shape of a man.
[in memoriam...of the clam-digger and salmon-
fisher..."his brown, hardening body living naturally
through the half-fierce, half-lazy work of the
bracing days"...]
Rating:
Summary: Best Ever
Review: The Great Gatsby is the classic American novel; period. It tells the story of Gatsby, the dreamer, and his fall from the world of fantasy to the world of reality; two worlds that for him were one and the same. Gatsby stands for the dreamer in all men; that force which we must use yet restrain. He reminds that while it is imperative to dream, we must live in reality. This story tells not only of that philosophical message, but of adventures among the rich, and provides a commentary for the society of the Roaring 20's. No book ever written provides as much insight to human nature as the Great Gatsby, and no book that ever will be written will either.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant.
Review: Of all the classic pieces of American literature, I find The Great Gatsby the most timeless. The writing itself is beautiful and lyrical. Every phrase appears to have been carefully constructed, and I would not change a single word of F. Scott Fitzgerald's. In addition to providing historical information about American high society in the 20s, TGG is multilayered and contains a wealth of symbolism and insight as to the human condition. (As a result, it offers a myriad of subjects for those pesky term papers.) This is my Definite Favorite Book of All Time. Reading and discussing The Great Gatsby is nothing short of deeply rewarding.
Rating:
Summary: ~~The Great Gatsby~~
Review: The great Gatsby is a book about rich people and how there lives are not what they seem at all. it is told by a "outsider" Nick he is like the boy looking into the fish bowl and the fishes are the rich people Gatsby or daisy. it is very interesting and gives a good view of the 20's. i give it 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: American classic
Review: This is one of those books that has become immortal because it perfectly captures an era. The 1920's were perhaps the most exciting decade of the previous century in America (rivaled only by the 1960's), and this book showcases its excesses in all their glory. We see the rich person, and what money can do to you. We see how love can not only change a man's life, but also take it away from him. We see interactions between different social classes. We see how the amounts of excess in the 20's reached such a zenith that people would actually hold huge parties for multitudes of people at their houses that they not only didn't know, but would never even meet. This book, on the surface, is a love story, but it also has deeper revertebrations. It's a tragedy. It's poetry. It's a warning about the false luster of the American dream. The plot in this story is wonderful and perfectly thought out. The writing style is very, very smooth and actually acutely beautiful. It's a beautifully written book - almost like prose at times, but very literate. It's probably Fitzgerald's masterpiece. This is a book that you can't afford to skip over when reading your way through the American classics.
Rating:
Summary: Tragic love amid a coven of liars
Review: Fitzgerald's third and best-known novel, "Gatsby" is remarkable both for the degree of skill already evidenced by the 28-year-old writer and for the unmistakable turn of phrases, a hallmark of Fitzgerald's writing. My favorite aspect of Fitzgerald's prose is the way he was able to convey such precise shades of meaning, fearlessly crafting sentences that though wordy perfectly capture a character's emotions or a memory's effect. "The Great Gatsby" is, essentially, a tragic story of love gone wrong. Is a lie told out of love less censurable than those told for lower reasons? Gatsby spins a cocoon of lies around himself, a cocoon from which he hopes to emerge as a new man worthy of Daisy's love. He emerges instead into a world of liars, and though on the face of things he is the biggest grifter of them all, Gatsby alone elicits sympathy: there is a degree of absolution due the creator of such a colossal deception. It is almost as if one is begging to be found out. Neither Tom nor Daisy nor Jordan nor even the unhappily married Wilsons have any such claim on our understanding. In the course of this story everyone lies to everyone else: only Gatsby pays the price. The truly creative liar is punished, the everyday tellers of banal lies go unchecked. I personally preferred "Tender is the Night", perhaps only because its longer and more complex nature allowed Fitzgerald more room to perform, to draw on all the powers at his command. But "The Great Gatsby" is definitely a worthwhile read, a relatively short tale told with the ease of a colorful memory.
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious
Review: I am not certain why this book is considered a classic. There's not one likeable character to relate to. Selfish, self-involved, shallow people. The first half was rough going to read through. The second half, a little better. I found this very disappointing after hearing for so long that it was a must-read. So many other more special books to spend one's time with.
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