The Great Gatsby

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Summary: Classic literature at it's epic best!
Review: What is there not to be able to say about The Great Gatsby, except that it was a fantastic book. When I first read it, it was for a class assignment, the next couple of times I read it, it was for pure and unadulterated pleasure. I'm not sure it's even legal to fall in love with a piece of literature that isn't a romance novel, nor a sonnet, nor words of love written to you, the way I fell in love with this literary masterpiece. Up until recently, I had forgotten how much of an impact the words within this piece had on my life. And not to say that Gatsby will be that awe-inspiring to everyone who is fortunate enough to pick up this book and begin to read it, but for me, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Fitzgerald conveys so many things in this book, it amazes me just how deep everything is...it's almost as if nothing is really what it appears on the surface, everything down to the ditch, and the billboard, and the "chance" meeting with Owl-Eyes...everything has a deeper meaning and extrodinary effect on the outcome of the book as well as the reader. To sum up my point of view of this book, I cannot praise it enough. It is definitely (in my eyes and library) one of the 5 greatest pieces of literature ever written. Falling somewhere between the Bible and perhaps The Richest Man in Babylon.

Rating:
Summary: The Great, Great Gatsby
Review: This was an excellent book. It captured the readers attention from the start and kept you clinging to the fascinating storyline. It displayed true human character, without trying to sound impressive. A simple, yet understated work of fiction. One of the best books I've read.

Rating:
Summary: As the book says, it's great!
Review: I was very reluctant in reading this book for my Honors English class. I had heard from many people that is was really boring. As it turns out, it's one of the best books I have ever read. It's well written, a good story, haunting symbolism, and a good read. The beginning is slow but as you learn more and more, everything falls into place. Recommended to anyone!

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Summary: A Dangerous Look Backward . . . At The Future
Review: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." These are the last words in the novel, and sum up its theme. Our minds (like moths to the light) are drawn irresistibly to the most wonderful moments we have experienced. Our mistake is then to build our future around them, not realizing that they can never be recaptured. In pursuing the past into the future, we deny ourselves the real potential of the future.

The Great Gatsby is developed in novel form around the story line of a Greek tragedy. Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbor, is the narrator, serving the role of the chorus. This choice of structure creates a marvelous reinforcement for the book's theme. The novel is constricted by the tragic form, even as Gatsby's future is by his immobilization by the past. If you like that sort of irony, you'll love The Great Gatsby.

Nick knows both Gatsby (his neighbor in West Egg, Long Island) and Daisy Buchanan (his cousin who lives in East Egg, Long Island). Daisy knew Gatsby before he was Gatsby and before meeting Tom, her husband. Gatsby has made himself into a rival for Daisy over the five years since they have last seen each other, and makes his play for her again through Nick about mid-way through the book. Daisy and Tom's responses shape the tragedy that is this story. I won't say more because it will harm your enjoyment of the novel.

The story itself is somewhat dated by the romantic perspective of the Roaring Twenties, and few will read it for the instant connection they will feel with the characters. Why would someone want to read this book? I see three reasons. The first is to explore the theme of moving illusions about the future built from the happiness of the past. The second is to see a fine example of plot development. There are no wasted words, actions, and thoughts. The third is to enjoy the language, which is beautifully expressive. For example, consider the book's opening sentence: "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." Fitzgerald goes on one sentence later to give you a clue about how to read the novel. "He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that."

These are not characters you will find uplifting. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made."

Why did Fitzgerald create such characters? Precisely, because he did not approve and did not want you to approve. 'Everything that glitters is not gold' is another way of summing up the lessons of this novel.

Why should someone not read this book? A reader who wants to be inspired by positive examples will find little to uplift oneself here. Someone who wants a story they can personally identify with will likely be disappointed. A student of how to create love and happiness will mainly find out how to create heartache and unhappiness. So the book is not for everyone.

After you have read the book, I would encourage the self-examining reader to consider where in one's own life the current focus is dominated by past encounters rather than future potential. Then consider how changing that perspective could serve you and those you love better.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy of All the Attention
Review: I put off reading this book for quite a long time because I thought "This Side of Paradise" was awful. But I finally caved in after it was voted #2 (behind Ulysses) by the Modern Library and I have to say it is worthy of the #1 spot of 20th Century Fiction. One of the only books I've ever read where I actually had to set it down after certain passages and think "Good grief, how did he come up with that?"

Rating:
Summary: The Great Gatsby
Review: Contrary to some of the other reviews, I thought this book was great, and you don't need to be an accomplished reader to enjoy this book. I read this in fifth grade and everyone liked it. Sure not everyone caught the true meaning of the book when they first read it but when they did, they realised that they were reading a truly good piece of literature. When you read each page you can tell that the author has put alot of time and thought into this book. This book isn't for people who want a fast, action, packed read. It takes some time and thought to finish the book as you mull over each page. If you're looking for a great classic, then read The Great Gatsby.

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Summary: the great american novel, hands down
Review: By far a must read for any literate human being. The great american novel. Amazing literature by Fitzgerald, I have read it over 100 times and will forever.

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Summary: The Perfect Novel
Review: When I was in college the professors said that the Great Gatsby was the perfect novel. I read the book again later in my 30s and realized why it was "perfect." The characters, story line, message, and controversy of the book meshed in a way that happens only once in a life time.

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Summary: The Pretty Good Gatsby
Review: There is little to say about this "classic" that was written over a half a century ago. Not as timeless as some would have you believe. Not as bad as others my age would have you believe. Read it if you are really patient.

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Summary: The Green Light
Review: The American Dream--as it arose in the Colonial period and developed in the nineteenth century--was based on the assumption that each person, no matter what his origins, could succeed in life on the sole basis of his or her own skill and effort. The dream was embodied in the ideal of the self-made man, just as it was embodied in Fitzgerald's own family by his grandfather, P. F. McQuillan.

The Great Gatsby is a novel about what happened to the American dream in the 1920s, a period when the old values that gave substance to the dream had been corrupted by the vulgar pursuit of wealth. The characters are Midwesterners who have come East in pursuit of this new dream of money, fame, success, glamour, and excitement. Tom and Daisy must have a huge house, a stable of polo ponies, and friends in Europe. Gatsby must have his enormous mansion before he can feel confident enough to try to win Daisy.

What Fitzgerald seems to be criticizing in The Great Gatsby is not the American Dream itself but the corruption of the American Dream. What was once--for Ben Franklin, for example, or Thomas Jefferson--a belief in self-reliance and hard work has become what Nick Carraway calls "...the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty." The energy that might have gone into the pursuit of noble goals has been channeled into the pursuit of power and pleasure, and a very showy, but fundamentally empty form of success.