Rating: Summary: The Great American Dream Review: It captures all the glamour and glitz of the Jazz Age in the image of a young man in search of love and the achieving he American Dream.Fitzgerald captures the restless carelessness of the rich in the Roaring 20s. An age of success and excess. A world of materialistic beauty and charm with a good dose of deceit and lies. Jay Gatsby, a mysterious wealthy young man from the "Middle West" of America. Ever elusive even to the end. You never really quite know who Gatsby really is. Fitzgerald incorporates an intricate pattern that is not always decipherable. Symbolism is in every chapter that foreshadows the semi-dramatic ending. Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the old money of East Egg Village. They are the elite, the smirking, the constant lies, cheating, uncaring and conflicted. The jaded disillusions of people who once thought they knew what it was all about and what they wanted. Don 't judge too quickly, either way. Every character has some quality that you will either like or dislike. Reserve any judgment until the end, when you have read the story and understood it. He incorporates his unaffected scorn of the rich and wealthy as well as his desire for it. That is portrayed through Jay Gatsby. His moral, open and trustworthy frame of mind and conscience carries through Nick Carraway, the narrator of the story. A friend of Gatsby who had admiration and disgust for the man. It is very easily to be irritated and annoyed by Gatsby naiveté and his delusions of the past. We all would like to think that being rich has its benefits and that it would make us all happier, but would it? The answer is clear and very subtle all at he same time. Gatsby embodies the very ideas we have or have had. There is something very youthful and beautiful about his character you want to succeed after all the effort.
Rating: Summary: I'm GLAD F. Scott Fiztgerald is dead. Review: That way he cannot write something this trite and boring again. "Slow to start" and "ambling" are such understatements when describing this thing I can barely call a book, yet alone a novel. The overflow of useless and uneeded information in this thing makes it several chapters longer than need be. In fact, if Fitzgerald had written this book properly (no extra junk I could care less about) it would have been EXACTLY two sentences long- "I'm rich." and "Oh, boo hoo." The plot line resembles an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 (namely "Let's sit around and whine about being rich. Next we'll get drunk and call each other names, fight, and run each other over!" SHUT UP ALREADY!) I can rarely can say this, but I HATE HATE HATE HATE this book! FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK IF YOU CAN HELP IT!
Rating: Summary: A complex drama filled with passion and tragedy... Review: This 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, set in the year 1922, is a literary classic and I can well understand why. A mere 205 pages, it's a book that has everything - story, theme, symbolism, moral drama and great characters. No wonder it's stood the test of time. The early 1920s was a very special time in American history. The Great War was over, and it was a time of celebration. Prohibition was the law of the land and bootleggers and gamblers were making fortunes as everybody partied with illegal booze and speculated in the stock market. In retrospect, we readers know that it all came to a crashing end later, but that was after the book was published and so the book captures the era in its own time. The narrator is Nick Carraway, a young man who, like Fitzgerald himself, was raised in the mid-west and is working in the stock market in New York City. His own financial circumstances are modest but he rents a house in Long Island next door to the flamboyant and wealthy Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties and whose background is shrouded in mystery. As a New Yorker myself I must say I cringed at his geography, but the rest of the book transcends these minor physical details. Slowly, we learn of Jay Gatsby's obsessive love for the wealthy Daisy, now married to the snobbish Tom Buchanan who is having an affair with a garage owner's wife. Nick is a friend of this cast of characters, participating in their lives but yet standing back and observing. He's a man of his times as well as a person who understands human character and foibles. How the story plays out is a complex drama filled with passion and tragedy and including elements worthy of Shakespeare or classic Greek theater. This is more than just a good story. It's an emotional ride in expensive cars to an era filled with people we can all identify with. I give this book by highest recommendation. It rises above a mere good read and dwells in the realm of great literature.
Rating: Summary: Enchanting Tale Review: This is the horrifically real tale of people and lost dreams. The story takes place in New York in the 1930's -40's. The main charcter, Nick is a bondsman from Wisconsin who happens to move into a house nextdoor to the mysterious Jay Gatsby who throws extraveagnt parties nightly. Nick's summer in New York was a colorful menagerie of elaborate society where he meets his sweetheart and gets into some mixups with his cousin Daisy and Gatsby. Nick discovers after not too much time there is a reason why Gatsby's past is so elusive and that there is a very real and very powerful agenda on Gatsby's mind. The Great Gatsby was an awesome book. Fitzgerald has a bold voice in his writing and expresses abstrsct ideas in a very tangible form. It gave a tragic look into life and society of the East Coast and the forlorn hopes that people hold to in their minds. Gatsby was a pleasant read and the sentences seemed to contain so much substance that I found myself rereading a lot so I wouldn't miss anything. I read the authorized text, so it was identical to the original publication, so it was wholly preserved. I would reccommend this book as intriguing and enchanting to most.
Rating: Summary: A Cornerstone of American Literature Review: I recall one of my friends complaining about our English course cirriculum and its obstinate emphasis on mediocre American Literature. Upon finishing "Gatsby" this semester, he said it was the first book by an American author he found to be unequivocally beautiful. Fitzgerald, in his classic novel about Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and the American Dream, not only delivers a message with which every American can identify, but writes with such an amazing lyricallity that at times I simply had to stop reading to visualize the beautiful descriptions he gives in the novel. This book is a classic; a must have for anyone who was not fortunate enough to read it while still in school, but even those who did should own a copy.
Rating: Summary: The 'Has It All' American Classic Novel Review: How can anyone NOT give this book 5 stars? I appreciated the foreword, preface, afterword, explanatory notes & the notes about the author by Matthew J. Bruccoli which enlightened my eyes before I started on the path of reading The Great Gatsby. It's funny that somehow my high school English teacher skipped this as required reading for me in the mid to late seventies. I bought the book for my niece, Ashley, a few years ago. I remembered a co-worker, Kim, who was an avid reader who once told me that The Great Gatsby was her all-time favorite book. I was curious. It's strang that it took my 17 year old niece to 'get me on the bandwagon' to finally read this classic book at age forty-one. It amazes me to realize that the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, died at age forty-four in Southern California on December 21, 1940, believing himself a failure. It's quite clear that Fitzgerald's ideas may have been 'made up' but he sued real life people, his own experiences and other true events to make his story. In retrosprect, the novel contains a story of money, greed, love, deceit, suspense, hate, alcoholism, stress, passion, time, ambition, death, life, status, 'leaving a mark in life', pleasure, vacation, free time, heroes, lies, trust, women vs. men, the 1920s, mystery, intrigue, romance, poor vs. rich, Sundays in the park, art, happiness, choices, fashion, lust, loneliness, friendship, adventure, honesty, making conversation, scenic views, people, music, dance, avoidance, communication, observation, summer, intelligence, panic, forgetting, agin, laughter, family values, prejudice, jealousy, past, future, youth, tranquility, grief, responsibility, self-improvement, self-actualization, carelessness, escaping and living life.
Rating: Summary: GREAT Review: I thought this book was really good. It was awesome. It showed that Fitsgerald is a great author. Out of the many characters in this book i found that Daisy was a very loving individual. She some times loved too much. which you will find out when u read the book, I give it two thumbs up.
Rating: Summary: The Great Gatsby Review: I felt that The Great Gatsby was a good book. It definitely illustrates well the daily activities of life in the 1920's. There are many things that were happening at that time that influenced the plot of the book such as the war and the KKK. I enjoyed reading material by a new author. Fitzgerald does an incredible job of bringing to life the settings of the book, and he uses such vivid and colorful words to describe them. There are times when the novel could become a bit confusing as far as the time element was concerned, but Fitzgerald would usually give subtle hints to allow you to estimate around what time it was. I think that the book is a book that can be enjoyed by many different kinds of readers, and it is a good book to read if you are interested in getting a taste of life in the 1920's.
Rating: Summary: This book is incredible Review: I love this book. On one level, it is a burning love story about obsession, yearning, and unrequited love, but on another level, this book is an interesting look at life in the Roaring Twenties. I love the vivid character discriptions, symbolism, and vocabulary. Come on, the green light at the end of Daisy's dock... Doctor JT Eckelberg's eyes looking down about man... supercilious and vaccuous... ha... it's a classic. Love it and reread it every few years. Also, this edition has notes in the back that explain some names and history (such as Gatz being slang for gun, etc.) very helpful
Rating: Summary: Sad!! horrible and boring Review: i cant believe people buy this book, it is soo boring i dunno how they rate this to be up with the other classic great books of the world... but this is just stupid
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