The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Book Reviews of The Great Gatsby
Book Review: Deservingly Proclaimed the Greatest American Novel [2] [1][T]
Summary: 5 Stars
Someone much more read, much more important in the world of letters, and much more famous, was asked a simple question -- what is the greatest American novel that you have ever read? Without hesitation, this author of conceivably a few candidates for such an accolade, blurted out the answer -- and without any embarrassment or any second thoughts -- the book is "The Great Gatsby." That person was Fitzgerald's friend and foe -- Ernest Hemingway.
To any young person reading this book, I can only suggest that you swallow every word, understand that each is placed in a precise place for specific reasons. Tight --a term used by the 1920's meaning drunk and which Fitzgerald may have been much of the time while writing this novel -- describes the writing style of this classic. Nothing wasted. Nothing but pure and calculated prose delivering the reader with crisp, succinct and pithy portrayal of its characters and issues.
I will not discuss the story. Hopefully, a new reader reads the book without reading others' interpretations. This is a classic. This is a great read. Take this book for a slow and enjoyable ride.
You will finish the book, close the cover, and say to yourself what Hemingway probably said, "Now that's a novel."
And, like many other readers of this book, you may very likely open its covers again and again in your future. Good books entice you to read them over and over.
His sales prove that the book has been read multiple times. It has sold more than 10 million copies. Selling over 10,000,000 copies is something which most writers dream of doing for all of their books in their entire career -- something which few can proclaim. This book meets that criteria by its one copyrighted version. Amazing.
Sadly, this book today -- in the United States alone -- sells 1.66 books a MONTH for every book sold during the LIFETIME of Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald unfortunately never got to see his work appreciated the way it deserved/deserves to be. In some respects, Fitzgerald's career is as sad or sadder that the protaganist in his greatest novel.
Book Review: Breathtaking prose
Summary: 5 Stars
I have heard it said that English is not a beautiful sounding language and that American prose in particular seems tone-deaf. I submit that people that say these things have never read Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."
But if the beautiful sentences were simply that, the book would not work on the deeper level that gripped me within a couple pages. There has been criticism of, "The Great Gatsby" that its overly romantic but I think the book is tapping into something more than that. It embodies and presents the American yearning for identity which is part wealth, part status, part beauty and part awe. This yearning goes beyond anything attainable and into the dangerous realm of self-delusion to which even someone as strong and decent as Gatsby succumbs.
Gatsby isn't a tragic hero because want he seeks isn't monumental - the adulterous love of Daisy but the way he pursues her is heroic because it consumes his whole life. Everything he is and does is aimed at gaining access to the social strata in which she lives. And the novel shows that elite society to be superficial, empty and thoughtless but Gatsby can't see that because he is so consumed with obtaining Daisy.
And someone could write an entire dissertation (and probably several people have) on the role of the automobile in Great Gatsby. When the book was written in 1923-24, the automobile was just on its way to becoming mainstream. They weren't a luxury but neither had they yet become commonplace. Fitzgerald was able to see the car not just as a symbol of his character's reckless disregard but as embodying both the rush to freedom and the ugly ruin of American life. The ash heaps and haunting eyes staring out from of the Dr. T.J. Eeckleburg billboard is where autos refill and where a pedestrian is run over by Gatsby's car. The automobile allowed the characters impulsively decide to drive to New Yok City for drinks they don't even consume but to do so they must travel through industrial and commercial blight. Isn't this the devil's bargain we have all surrendered to?
Book Review: An American tragedy from the Jazz Age
Summary: 5 Stars
This story of the 'lost generation', those who came of age in time to fight in WWI and, if they were lucky, returned home to find that everything had changed, especially themselves. This generation was no longer content to stay in the small towns and cities that their families had lived in for generations. The young men did not want to enter into the family business and settle down with a suitable young woman from nearby. The young women were not content to stay in their parents' house and wait, they wanted out in the world to 'do something'.
The story is told, not through the eyes of Gatsby but through those of Nick, a young man from the midwest who has settled in New York to learn the bond game. By chance he has rented a house on Long Island for the summer, a small cottage stuck among much grander mansions and, again by chance, across an inlet from a cousin, Daisy and her husband Tom, who, also by chance Nick had known slightly in college. Also by chance, Nick's neighbor, the mysterious Gatsby had been one of Daisy's many suitors before she had settled down with Tom. Nick soon finds himself swept into the glittering, glamorous world of Gatsby and Daisy and Tom. He is made an unwilling witness to Tom's infidelity, the one sided romance of Gatsby and Daisy and finally to the tragic results of it all.
THE GREAT GATSBY is a very American story, one that depicts the American restlessness, the desire to be more, better, different from all that has come before. As with many books that are assigned reading this one is often forced on an audience that is too young to appreciate it. Like many others I hated this novel when I first read it (I was an 18 year old college freshman) but found that it stuck with me, unlike many other assigned books, long after the final exam. Over the years I have read it several times and each time discovered something new, a different aspect of the novel becoming the 'point' of the story.
This is one everyone really should read at least once, perferably a couple times, in their lives.
Book Review: The Grating Gatsby
Summary: 2 Stars
This is the unfortunate case of the reputation making the novel, rather than the other way around. I found "the Great Gatsby" very dissapointing. Its said to be the greatest American novel of all time, yet I found it largely uninteresting and poorly written (in light of its reputation, that is). The characters are not dymanic, and the novel's apparent focus -- that the wealthy, petty, aloof inhabitants of both East and West Egg are interchangeable -- is made evident during the first chapter. The novel centers on a host of blase characters - Gatsby chief among them -- whose lavish parties are attended by strangers, and whose funerals are attended by nobody.
This is not the "Great American Novel" - actually, its far too short to qualify as a NOVEL. Novella, maybe. Limerick, more like it. only limericks are at least amusing.
Theme One: Old money, new money, the perceived difference in the have's and have more's. Whether East Egg, West Egg or Fried Egg, its nothing more than a distinction without difference. I found the same message in Dr. Seusss's story of the Sneeches - and at least that rhymed.
Theme 2: You can't escape the past. Thanks, Nostradummy. The past repeats itself. Much like Fitzgerald's tired themes and characters.
Theme 3: Love = jealousy. There is no great romance here. This much is evident when Gatsby admits to Daisy that it is not her love that he desires, but for to have loved no other, even in the past. The much-lauded green light at the end of the dock? Just another symbol of petty jealousy, not the sign of "hope" as some commentators believe.
But is not the bland characters that make this novel unworthy of its reputation; it is the fact that the characters are fully fleshed out by page 20, and remain static throughout the remainder of the novel. Read Dr. Seuss instead. You'll read the same themes in the same amount of time, and if you're going to write on the level of a 6-year-old, you may as well do it intentionally.
Book Review: Gatsby, The Great Lie
Summary: 4 Stars
Personally this is the second time I have read The Great Gatsby, the first time in college and now 20 plus years later. I had remembered the main storyline but had forgotten what a good read the book can be. Fitzgerald provides a nicely written, not overly long or multifaceted story that is full of complexity and insight into America in the 1920s (and in some ways today).
Everyone's life in the story seems to be based on or involves a lie (Tom and Daisy in their marriage, Daisy in her role in the death of Myrtle, Jordon's success in her profession, Myrtle and Wilson in their marriage, Meyer Wolfsheim's notoriety, and of course Gatsby in his whole being). Even Myrtle's sister Catherine, a minor character, lies when arriving at the site of her sister's death. All of these lies exist under the ever vigilant eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, though no one seems to have any reservation about being watched. Nick, our narrator, claims he is one of the few honest people he has ever known. Yet he is complacent and allows the lies to occur and, in some cases, is an actual accomplice in the carrying forth of many of the lies. Does this make him a liar, or worse.
Though ultimately a story, or statement, about 1920's America the story contains a timeless theme, true wealth can correct a lot of wrongs. Tom and Daisy left a horrible trail behind them. Their wealth will allow them to move forward with little to no impact. While many of the others are not poor they lack the means, financially and mentally, to move forward the way Toms and Daisy's wealth allows them to do.
Was Jay Gatsby great as supposed in the title, I don't know. Nick seemed to have been converted to believing so at the end after despising him earlier. Better than the whole lot he states. But can some who is completely a fabrication be great? The obvious answer is yes as we have seen it through the ages but I don't know about Gatsby.
Enjoy the book. It's a great read that has multiple layers.