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Summary: And so we beat on . . .
Review: Could a short work of just over 100 pages that centers on an insularized social station and contains numerous inconsistencies and no continuous narrative be the mythical "Great American Novel?" Could the lionized author of this work in actuality be a philandering alcoholic who wasted the better part of his life and talent galavanting across the beaches of Europe with a dry gin in one hand and his diary in the other? The assignation of The Great Gatsby into the junior high school curriculum personifies its persecution complex. A generation of readers have explored only the most topical of its themes, the symbolism of the green light, the excesses of the Jazz Age, the positioning of the narrator. To students of serious literature, The Great Gatsby is seen as more of an introduction than an immersion. A excellent book by a gifted, yet misguided writer. Nothing more. However, Fitzgerald proves more adept than thought. By the magical end of the novel, his topical Jazz Age themes grow into ruminations on the importance of money and love and the dissapation of the American Dream. The characters transform from stereotypical players in a fable to archetypal representatives of human fraility. The structure, despite the shortness of the novel, is compelling. Nine distinct scenes flow and weave together effortlessly through narrative and flashback. The chronological discrepencies drift away; just as Fitzgerald's prose seems to drift in, wondrous and ephemeral. Fitzgerald plays no stylistic gymnastics or ouija board gambits with his novel, and perhaps this is why it often is found lacking in comparison to the works of Faulkner, Joyce, and Hemingway. Fitzgerald did not invent the "iceburg theory" or pen a novel of the length and scope of Ulysses. But, The Great Gatsby possesses the unmistakable qualities of excellence; able to be read in one sitting, it leaves the reader breathless and emotionally spent pondering themes as eloquent as any in literature and as timely today as they were during the Roaring Twenties. Every time the radio blares the Boss and "Glory Days" or Simon and Garfunkel and "Mrs. Robinson," it echoes the sentiments of Fitzgerald's book. In painting a nation afraid to relinguish its storied past, The Great Gatsby searches for that "one fine morning . . ." when we are able to come to grips with who we were and concentrate on who we are and will become. No other book so wonderfully crystallizes the struggle of man and his infinite ability to dream with the parameters of time. The Great Gatsby is a marvelous achievement; just because you read it as a child, do not hesitate to read it again. I regret that I waited so long
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Summary: #1 is Catcher; #2 is Gatsby
Review: I wrote a leter yestirday praising my gratest book but it didn't get put up with the others. Meby its because my speling has never ben the best, but I must say I think that i wish I'd writen Catcher, but I still think Gatz is one of the gratest. ÐScot
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Summary: If you think the book is trivial, please try again.
Review: I read this book in high school. That was only three yearsago. I am not rich, not a social climber, but my sympathy for Gatsbyis utter and unbreakable. He is perhaps the most American hero in all of American literature--both a triumph of diligence and ingenuity and a tragedy of naivete and unrequitable striving. Make no mistake, "The Great Gatsby" is a classic. I don't mind if other readers don't like it, but I wish they would read the book with a little more empathy.
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Summary: An annual read
Review: I proudly join the long list of people here who loved "The Great Gatsby." Indeed, I read it at least once a year, preferably when it's as hot here as it was in East and West Egg during the telling of the tale. Fitzgerald captures so much of human attitude in his characters and the telling of the story that each reading brings a fresh insight not only to the story, but to its relevancy in the late 20th century.
Two particular comments: doesn't it strike you that our current inhabitants of the White House are Daisy and Tom Buchannon? Easy to be friend with, but they are not friends on whom you can rely. They use people not deliberately, one suspects, but rather innocently, as Daisy and Tom do. Though I voted for Bill in primaries and general elections, it's been an interesting revelation to me to see the Buchannons come alive in Whitewater, Paula Jones, personal aides left dangling before committee investigations, and the like.
Second comment: this edition is the best I've seen. I purchased it several years ago and Bruccoli's insight is wonderful. After reading his discussion of time and Fitzgerald's use of time tables, time of day (both painstakingly accurate and terribly casual), and even how the chapters in the final version never quite made sense, I enjoyed a stronger sense of the mastery of the work.
Enough. Great book, great edition: read it and reap!
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Summary: Nothing more than a poorly written soap
Review: The Great Gatsby contained nothing more than can be found in a TV soap opera. All of the characters where one sided and underdeveloped. The book makes a poor attempt at exploring human nature, which pales in comparison to great novels such as "Catcher in the Rye". It was one of the most boring and shallow books that I have ever read
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Summary: The finest book of the 20th century
Review: Gatsby's tale of love and life, the possibility of the moment realized and the crushing emptiness of a dream lost is so compelling that it continues to speak profoundly about the volatile experience of being both human and American in a world that is increasingly doing its level best to lure us away from the simpler selves we mean to inhabit. There are other themes and topics in Gatsby: greed, corruption, the Jazz Age, the American Dream gone sadly off course. But the compelling message of Gatsby is the romanticism within us all - that there is an incorruptible truth out there somewhere, if only we can maintain the focus to seek it out and the courage to embrace it when we stumble across its path. To read Gatsby is to rediscover the lyricism of the English language, enjoy a good story and be admonished to stay true to our dreams
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Summary: One word; overrated.
Review: A boring book about bored rich people, not to mention contrived. I imagine it would have made riveting reading at the time for the very people it tries to depict
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Summary: The Underappreciated Classic
Review: How is it possible to label as "underappreciated" a book that is routinely included in the American literary canon? Understand this: _Gatsby_ forced its way into the canon--with the pellucid beauty of its prose and the undeniable resonance of its theme--against the wishes of many, if not most, in the critical intelligensia. In his time, Fitzgerald was regarded as a talented but irresponsible lightweight, a writer who dissolved his unique gift in expensive gin. Today, his lifetime reputation as a dissolute drunkard continues to tarnish his litarary legacy, particularly in comparison to the other two members of the Trinity of 20th Century American Literature, Hemingway and Faulkner. With some exceptions (most notably the fanatically devoted Matthew Bruccoli), critics and academics continue to regard Fitzgerald's work of love, wealth, and dreams as a shade beneath Hemingway and Faulkner, with their more gaudily "literary" themes of mortality, family, and death. But _Gatsby_ makes liars and fools of those who remain intent on observing only a chronicler of the gin-soaked privileged classes. Yes, there is wealth, and parties and cars and stars, but _Gatsby_ is a book that rewards not only the dazzling first read, but repeated readings. Of course, the book features some of the best of Fitzgerald's spectacular, inimitable prose style, which even detractors acknowledge as unmatched in its poetic grace. But there is much more underneath the fine finish, where so many have failed to look, distracted by the glossy exterior. Dreams, ambition, financial and moral corruption, love real and imagined, morality, success, failure and death: these are _Gatsby_'s themes, the themes of the American story--and are there bigger themes in Hemingway's bullfights and war, or Faulkner's incest and insanity? Modern critics continue to insist that Fitzgerald understood only a certain class and time, but this assessment suffers from a failure of the vision and imagination that Fitzgerald possessed in abundance. The very slightness of the plot of _Gatsby_ facilitates its analogy to contemporary America. Just imagine how easy it would be for Hollywood to remake _Gatsby_ as a modern tale of a boy from the ghetto rising through raw ambition and illicit means, chasing a dream he left behind that was never within his reach. In fact, Hollywood has made that movie, a hundred times over, because it is the prototypical American story, applicable to any time or place in the nation's history. _Gatsby_ is really a perfect, particular retelling of the most enduring story in American mythology
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Summary: The Great American Novel
Review: The Great Gatsby's deceptively ephemeral story is not so much the deserved masterpiece of one of our most gifted writers as it is the stunning illusion of a great magician. In that, it is an Alice-In-Wonderland portal that allows us to peer into the lives of a small band of the bored and privileged. It is a metaphor of its age and an uncanny prosnostication of our current malaise. Where's the magic? When one steps back from the book, there's no plot, the characters are rather bland, they don't do anything particularly interesting, and what they do accomplish in the very short timespan we spend with them is so trivial or mean that we are left wondering why we enjoyed the book so much. Magic is never about the rabbit, but rather the empty hat. Fitzgerald The Great's magic wand is the English language and we, his vaudville audience in our straw hats and bowlers, are mesmerized by his amazing show
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Summary: This book might seem odd, but it is reallly quiet good.
Review: The book "The Great Gatsby" is a portryal of the American dream in its entirety. The book keep the reader motivated with its flowing writing, and it's constant change of action and scenery. The book is comparable with many other great works based upon the fact that Fitzgerald used many symbolisms in the novel that are relevant in todays world. His characters depict both the good and morally corrupt; thereby, making it relevant to all who read it no matter there background our financial status. Although this book never really caught on at when it was first published, it now is winning greater accolades and will remain to be one of America's greatest classics.
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