The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

book data

173,049 ratings, 3.76 average rating, 8,016 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		28%
4		33%
3		25%
2		8%
1		3%

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published

September 30th 1999 (first published 1925) by Scribner

binding

Paperback, 180 pages

characters

Jay Gatsby, Daisy & Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway

setting

The United States

isbn

0743273567 (isbn13: 9780743273565)

description

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately pat...more

[close] In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.

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12/24/07

Alex rated it:

The Great Gatsby is your neighbor you're best friends with until you find out he's a drug dealer. It charms you with some of the most elegant English prose ever published, making it difficult to discuss the novel without the urge to stammer awestruck about its beauty. It would be evidence enough to argue that F. Scott Fitzgerald was superhuman, if it wasn't for the fact that we know he also wrote This Side of Paradise.

But despite its magic, the rhetoric is just that, and it is a crue...more The Great Gatsby is your neighbor you're best friends with until you find out he's a drug dealer. It charms you with some of the most elegant English prose ever published, making it difficult to discuss the novel without the urge to stammer awestruck about its beauty. It would be evidence enough to argue that F. Scott Fitzgerald was superhuman, if it wasn't for the fact that we know he also wrote This Side of Paradise.

But despite its magic, the rhetoric is just that, and it is a cruel facade. Behind the stunning glitter lies a story with all the discontent and intensity of the early Metallica albums. At its heart, The Great Gatsby throws the very nature of our desires into a harsh, shocking light. There may never be a character who so epitomizes tragically misplaced devotion as Jay Gatsby, and Daisy, his devotee, plays her part with perfect, innocent malevolence. Gatsby's competition, Tom Buchanan, stands aside watching, taunting and provoking with piercing vocal jabs and the constant boast of his enviable physique. The three jostle for position in an epic love triangle that lays waste to countless innocent victims, as well as both Eggs of Long Island. Every jab, hook, and uppercut is relayed by the instantly likable narrator Nick Carraway, seemingly the only voice of reason amongst all the chaos. But when those boats are finally borne back ceaselessly by the current, no one is left afloat. It is an ethical massacre, and Fitzgerald spares no lives; there is perhaps not a single character of any significance worthy even of a Sportsmanship Award from the Boys and Girls Club.

In a word, The Great Gatsby is about deception; Fitzgerald tints our glasses rosy with gorgeous prose and a narrator you want so much to trust, but leaves the lenses just translucent enough for us to see that Gatsby is getting the same treatment. And if Gatsby represents the truth of the American Dream, it means trouble for us all. Consider it the most pleasant insult you'll ever receive.(less)

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07/31/07

svnh rated it:

bookshelves: academia

you know, i tried to lay my rampant hate for f. scott fitzgerald aside and re-read this novel. i was forced into it 8th grade, and afterward explaining that i didn't like it just meant i wasn't "mature enough to understand". in defiance and triumph, i stand convinced. four years into a bachelor's in english and i still hate this novel.

sure, there's a lot of description about the 1920s, another example of fitzgerald capitalizing on his one hundred percent fabricated "k...more

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10/23/07

Gina rated it:

bookshelves: pans-labyrinth

Over drinks, I’ve observed—like so many smart alacks—that much of The Great Gatsby’s popularity relies heavily on its shortness. At a sparse 180 pages, Fitzgerald’s masterpiece could be argued to be the “Great American novella.” Gatsby, like so many other short classics, is easily readable, re-readable, and assessable to everyone from the attention-deficient young to mothers juggling a kid, a career, and a long-held desire to catch up on all those books “they should have read b...more Over drinks, I’ve observed—like so many smart alacks—that much of The Great Gatsby’s popularity relies heavily on its shortness. At a sparse 180 pages, Fitzgerald’s masterpiece could be argued to be the “Great American novella.” Gatsby, like so many other short classics, is easily readable, re-readable, and assessable to everyone from the attention-deficient young to mothers juggling a kid, a career, and a long-held desire to catch up on all those books “they should have read but haven’t gotten around to yet”.

I’ve now read Gatsby three times, and I admit that on my first reading during (like handfuls of others) my senior year English class, I wasn’t particularly fond of the book; I believe I used the adjective “overrated” on numerous occasions. Daisy Buchanan seemed like a twit of a woman, and I found Jay Gatsby to be pathetically clawing in his attempt to attain her. Nick, my guide, only annoyed me further with his apparent hero-worshiping of a man I found one-dimensional and his adoration for the kind of woman I’ve seen other men purport to be goddesses, but in fact, are dim-witted simpletons with nice figures.

Over my two subsequent readings—pushed along by friends whose judgment I trusted and who swore the book was “so funny and ironic”—I discovered within Fitzgerald’s fable a sardonic social wit and a heavily layered critique of the American Dream: the poor, working (wo)man rising above his or her social station to discover money conquers all.

Fitzgerald has a discerning ability for sharp critiques of the economically privileged and, like Jane Austin, has an ear for realistic, bantering dialogue. Through Nick’s narration, we see a world that so many Americans dream of (its enviableness only further accentuated by our open disdain for it): a life of endless parties, delicious food, beautiful clothes, and Paris Hilton. Nick who’s paradoxically drawn to his cousin, Daisy’s, and her husband, Tom’s, lifestyle with gloating contempt echoes the contemporary American idolization of an elite lifestyle that none but a select few attain.

We watch Daisy with her voice that “sounds of money” flit about with uncompromising shallowness and vivacious school-girl frivolity, and through her, see so many of the inconsequential remarks and actions others (as well as ourselves) have made for the sheer sake of “having a good time”. In spite of her frivolity and weak disposition, we become, like Gatsby, “overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.”

Through Gatsby’s veneration of Daisy, we not only imagine what so many Americans desire (success), but also we see the goal and glittering fixation of all humanity: beauty. And like many Americans in the throws of Capitalism, Gatsby believes that money can buy beauty as well as love. Fitzgerald articulates this disillusion with haunting force, particularly voiced through Nick’s obsessive repulsion with the extravagant society his social status has allowed him and the sadness he finds while watching a “working man” attempt to enter it.

One critique of The Great Gatsby, which could also be argued as a positive, is the limited scope of action and themes Fitzgerald chooses to encapsulate. We only see the wealthy elite (or people wanting to be the wealthy elite), and only Nick really has any depth of characterization. Unlike a tome, such as War and Peace, Gatsby fails to have numerous interwoven plotlines within a grand historical context. Yes, the Jazz Age is the novel’s backdrop, but Fitzgerald fails to engage in any discussion beyond a summer among the wealthy youth partying into the wee hours of the night in the West Egg. Yet, the control with which Fitzgerald expresses his limited themes makes the novel’s lack of scope forgivable.

Gatsby is short and easily accessible, and I have no doubt these aspects of the novel do lend to its everlasting popularity. At the same time, it should never diminish its truly admirable ability to tease apart some of the most confounding qualities American culture values: money, beauty, youth, hardwork, and the every effusive, love. (less)

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12/31/07

LooseLips rated it:

bookshelves: hmmm-, re-reading

recommends it for: the people who live in upstate egg.

The eh Gatsby

Classic. Yes. THE great American novel. Hmph, so I heard. I suppose it should make one more interested, or at least feel more compelled to read something (or re-read as is the case here) when it has "classic" and "everyone else loves it!" stamped all over it. And has a movie made out of it, though what beloved novel hasn't these days? Of course, I originally read FSF's Gatsby because I was expected to for a high school English class. So, even though I...more The eh Gatsby

Classic. Yes. THE great American novel. Hmph, so I heard. I suppose it should make one more interested, or at least feel more compelled to read something (or re-read as is the case here) when it has "classic" and "everyone else loves it!" stamped all over it. And has a movie made out of it, though what beloved novel hasn't these days? Of course, I originally read FSF's Gatsby because I was expected to for a high school English class. So, even though I was never the type to do homework, I read The Great Gatsby because it had a neat cover, Fitzgerald is fun to say, and, of course, the legend of Zelda.

Unfortunately for Meredyth, my thoughts on Gatsby 10 years ago are pretty similar to the thoughts I have on it today: How pretty. Pretty decedant. How drippy. How zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It's not that I was completely uninterested. It's that my interest was never piqued to the point of really giving a shit. Sure, who doesn't love a hot mysteriously wealthy man with serious heart ache for a serious material girl? What about those rich dudes who may be crooks but no one can figger out how crooked they are exactly because how crooked can you be if you throw such mean hoedowns?!

Oh, and I love a good morally ambiguous-protaganist/narrator-who-hates-parties-and-society-but-just-can't-seem-to-stay-away as much as the next person, but Nick, our hero, just wants to be liked so very much, and unfortunately, he reads like a sap. And when all the other characters are unforgivable bores, I would prefer that my ambiguous, socially mandated narrator manage to keep me awake.

What about those three stars? You ask. Well I can't lie. I do think Fitz had a way with words. I did find that those subtle nuances of the variations in lifestyle during the depression to be very much in effect, and I would be happy to visit any fictional small town called West Egg. Or East Egg for that matter. And I get the kind of crazy he was going for in his more psychopathic character, George Wilson, who, because he was in love, becomes the bastiOn of normalcy even when he is driven to murder and his own suicide.

FSF did manage to be believably compassionate towards his seemingly less insane characters, (who are all on the brink of insanity) (but still made me drowsy). There is definitely a part of me that sees how one could be drawn into the twinkly lit world FSF created, supposedly, out of his own reality, and I have noted his passion for the beauty of the unfolding story, such as it is.

But I was disappointed 10 years ago by the story's inability to convince me it wasn't nap time, its unwillingness to point out the the relevance of the individual over society, and the irrelevance of the world Gatsby inhabits, and I was disappointed again this past week.

In summation, be sure to keep an eye out for this writer. Once he writes something more appealing to the masses he's sure to bust out onto the scene soon. You heard it here first.(less)

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07/22/08

Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0140180672)

bookshelves: early-twentieth-century, film, modern-fiction, north-american

Read in July, 1993

Like many people, I first read The Great Gatsby when I was too young to understand it. I appreciated the beauty of Fitzgerald's prose and his gift for describing scenes, but disliked quite a few of his characters and couldn't fathom why they inspired in each other the degree of devotion and obsession that they seemed to do. I also found the narrator a bit dull and the ending a huge let-down. In short, I was convinced Fitzgerald was a good writer (I actually went on to check out some of his short...more Like many people, I first read The Great Gatsby when I was too young to understand it. I appreciated the beauty of Fitzgerald's prose and his gift for describing scenes, but disliked quite a few of his characters and couldn't fathom why they inspired in each other the degree of devotion and obsession that they seemed to do. I also found the narrator a bit dull and the ending a huge let-down. In short, I was convinced Fitzgerald was a good writer (I actually went on to check out some of his short stories immediately afterwards), but couldn't see what all the Gatsby fuss was about.

I think I can see it now, having reread the book a couple of times since then. Yes, it's a novel about the American Dream -- a rags-to-riches story about a poor man who re-invents himself as a mysterious millionaire in hopes of winning the heart of the beautiful rich girl he has fancied ever since they were young. But it's also about the shallowness of that dream, and about the corruption inherent in it -- about the lengths to which people will go for success and acceptance, not necessarily in an admirable way. It's about the gap between dreams and reality, between reality and perception, and about how modern, status-obsessed America is increasingly on the perception side of the gap. It's an indictment of materialism, of the thin veneer of wealth which hides the moral decay underneath. And last but not least, it's a story about what makes us who we are. About how we are shaped by our pasts and backgrounds, and how, no matter how far we run and how hard we try to re-invent ourselves, we are what we are, what we always were. It's a depressing message for the would-be self-improvers among us, but a true one, I think.

Of course, the book also works on a shallower level. The Gatsby-Daisy romance is fascinating, even if both of its protagonists ultimately turn out to be rather vapid and deluded. And Gatsby's dream is nothing if not powerful. If it ends up failing, that's because it was based on wrong assumptions -- assumptions arising from ignorance and greed as well as hope. There's a lot of greed and ignorance in the book, and it makes for memorable (albeit heavily flawed) characters. (I actually believe Jordan Baker is the most interesting character in the book. I'd have loved to see a bit more of her, although I guess it's precisely her elusiveness which makes her so fascinating.) For his part, old-fashioned Nick proves to be an excellent narrator, whose 'provincial squeamishness' adds just the right kind of perspective to all the modern goings-on described in the book. Nick may be unspectacular and unreliable, but to my mind, he's one of the best narrators in the history of modern fiction. Now that I've learnt to appreciate the novel, his disappointment and disillusionment will stay with me for ever, as will his sad resignation. (If, in fact, that is what it is. One never knows with this endlessly subtle novel.)(less)

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03/10/08

Lisa rated it:

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: Anyone!

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I first read the Great Gatsby when I was sixteen. Gatsby’s relentless pursuit of unrequited love was enough to set my adolescent pulse racing and send me to the library with the grand ambition of reading everything Fitzgerald ever wrote. A decade later I am even more awed by the book than I was the first time I followed Gatsby’s story through the breathless pages of Fitzgerald’s modernist American classic.
The story takes place over the course of one summer, not coincidentally begi...more I first read the Great Gatsby when I was sixteen. Gatsby’s relentless pursuit of unrequited love was enough to set my adolescent pulse racing and send me to the library with the grand ambition of reading everything Fitzgerald ever wrote. A decade later I am even more awed by the book than I was the first time I followed Gatsby’s story through the breathless pages of Fitzgerald’s modernist American classic.
The story takes place over the course of one summer, not coincidentally beginning just before Independence Day. The narrator, Nick, moves to a peninsula out side of the city called West Egg which looks straight across to its physical double, East Egg. Despite the outward similarity of these two locations, the inhabitants of East Egg are from old money while the prosperity of the citizens of West Egg is due to much more recently acquired wealth. The towns are therefore described as, in actuality, bearing a “bizarre and not a little sinister contrast” to one another. This juxtaposition sets up a narrative of the push and pull of opposites: east versus west, new versus old, truth versus illusion.
The two worlds of West Egg and East Egg are brought onto a collision course through Nick who rents the house next door to James Gatsby’s enormous mansion and who happens to be the cousin of Gatsby’s love interest, Daisy, and friend to Daisy’s old moneyed, old fashioned husband, Tom Buchanan. As the summer unfolds, it becomes clear that none of the characters are whom they appear to be, Gatsby is not from a rich family nor is he an alumni of Oxford, as a matter of fact, when he first met and fell in love with Daisy he had almost no money at all. Tom is an outspoken proponent of the traditional family structure while he simultaneously carries on an affair, and Daisy is neither quite as brave nor quite as independent as she would like the world to believe. Even Jordan Baker, Daisy’s friend who has an affair with Nick that summer, is a professional golfer who has been accused of cheating and is described by Nick as “incurably dishonest.” Each character can also be understood to stand for a different arch type within American society, Tom is the wealthy patrician, carrying in his blood and his bearing decades of privilege and position, yet he has recently begun to read pseudo-science books about the impending fall of civilization. In other words, that civilization which has been shaped and protected by men in Tom’s social class is in jeopardy. Daisy is a modern woman, witty and provocative, she has even had sex before her wedding night, but when she announces to Nick that she is sophisticated he feels “the basic sincerity of what she has said.” Flappers of the twenties may have looked and behaved unconventionally, but when it came right down to it, most of them married men liked Tom who could provide them with material security. Jordan is more the truly modern woman, a professional who mostly takes care of herself, but she has achieved this position through various acts of dishonesty. Gatsby, of course, is the self made man, the challenge to the established order of society. It is not Gatsby’s existence that threatens the world of East Egg, America has always boasted of self-made men, it is the fact that he has suddenly come so close. He is just across the bay and his mansion, while gaudy and tasteless, is nevertheless every bit as big as Tom’s. Gatsby is finally in a position to make a claim on Daisy’s love, and therefore on Tom’s social superiority. He is so close to fulfilling the American dream he can almost reach right out and touch it.
Like Fitzgerald himself, Gatsby pursues his dream through the vehicle of fiction. Gatsby invents a new persona for himself in order to enter Daisy’s world; Fitzgerald created windows into the lives of the rich and glamorous and through these stories, became a figure of fame and fortune himself. In the end, Gatsby does not succeed in winning Daisy, but it isn’t really about her, it’s about his dream, his belief in limitless possibilities, that quality of bravery and ingenuity that has come to be known as the American dream. “The orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning--"(less)

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03/10/08

Peter added it

Read in March, 2008

The Great Gatsby is the story of a presidential primary.

—I’m sorry; my notes must be confused here. Ah yes. Let me begin again:

The Great Gatsby is the story of the emptiness of the American Dream. Set in and around New York City in the 1920’s, Gatsby explores the lives of the rich as they pursue fulfillment in an era of booming stock markets, prohibition, bustling crime bosses, and jazz.

Three figures dominate a cast of smaller, if no less compelling,...more

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07/09/07

Jason rated it:

bookshelves: favorites

recommends it for: people who can read

Most Americans are assigned to read this novel in high school. Few American high schoolers have the wherewithal to appreciate this novel in full. I certainly did not. It is on a shortlist of novels that should, every 5 years starting at age 25, return to any American's required reading list.

First things first: The opening of The Great Gatsby -- its first 3-4 pages -- ranks among the best of any novel in the English language, and so too does its ending. Both for their content and fo...more Most Americans are assigned to read this novel in high school. Few American high schoolers have the wherewithal to appreciate this novel in full. I certainly did not. It is on a shortlist of novels that should, every 5 years starting at age 25, return to any American's required reading list.

First things first: The opening of The Great Gatsby -- its first 3-4 pages -- ranks among the best of any novel in the English language, and so too does its ending. Both for their content and for their prose, the latter of which is stunning and near perfect throughout the novel.

As for that between the novel's opening and conclusion, two things first. (1) History is fairly clear that the term "the American Dream" did not exist at the time Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, and regardless it almost certainly did not exist in the popular consciousness. (2) Few great American novelists after Fitzgerald have not attempted to write "the great American novel". Most of these efforts are absurdly long and often tortured. The Great Gatsby, on the other hand, is relatively short, fluid, and of seemingly effortless yet pristine expression. At a point in history where Fitzgerald's express focus could hardly have been a tale regarding "the American dream" per se or the writing of "the great American novel", Fitzgerald nevertheless crafts the definitive tale of "the American Dream", as well as, his successors' endeavors aside, "the great American novel". Period.

In not so many pages, Fitzgerald paints a brilliantly cogent picture of the potential pleasures, joys, and benefits an individual might deem achievable -- uniquely so -- in an America filled with possibilities. Paired with that picture, Fitzgerald besprinkles The Great Gatsby with the numerous pitfalls and evils that both stand as a barrier to what's imagined achievable in America, and threaten to accompany that which is achieved. Neither the quest for, nor (if possible) the achievement of, the American Dream is a thing untainted. Nor, in Fitzgerald's view, can it be.

Fitzgerald, frankly, writes all that need be written on this subject; whatever his successors' ambitions may be. And he writes it in prose so perfect, so impressive, and so beautiful, I occasionally find myself at a loss to name a novel in the English language constructed with greater skill, and apparent ease thereof.

In short: The Great Gatsby is an inimitable wonder of American fiction. And, for lack of a better word, an "application" of the English language that has few equals. The novel is astounding.
(less)

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03/06/07

Rolls rated it:

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: Everybody and their mother

"The Great Gatsby" is considered by many to be the zenith of american fiction writing in the last century. I won't say that it is the best american novel but I will say it is probably the most perfect.

Along with J.D. Salinger, Fitzgerald has got to be my favorite writer of fiction. As opposed to Hemingway's bluntness, and Faulkner's artiness, Fitzgerald's prose seems(to paraphrase Michael Chabon) to rain down from style heaven. His style in fact is like the ladies he writes...more "The Great Gatsby" is considered by many to be the zenith of american fiction writing in the last century. I won't say that it is the best american novel but I will say it is probably the most perfect.

Along with J.D. Salinger, Fitzgerald has got to be my favorite writer of fiction. As opposed to Hemingway's bluntness, and Faulkner's artiness, Fitzgerald's prose seems(to paraphrase Michael Chabon) to rain down from style heaven. His style in fact is like the ladies he writes about: cool, lean and absolutely enchanting. He would never dream of overwriting and knows exactly when to hold back for maximum effect. His use of the language is assured and consequently eminently readable. For that alone this should be considered the Mona Lisa of prose.

What is astounding though is how he puts his sparsely elegant style to use giving his characters shade and depth. Fitzgerald is a true student of humanity and his skills of observation are razor sharp. He sums up his characters in sentences that read like aphorisms bulging with truth about the human condition. There's not a page goes by I'm not gasping at the depth of his vision and the economy he uses to express it.

So far I've dwelt on how he wrote and not on what he wrote. People who'd back another nag in the Great American Novel derby knock Fitzgerald's sophomoric (their word not mine) obsession with romance between men and women. They reduce his works to the level of melodramatic tear jerkers. This is a gross simplification of his talents. Yes "Gatsby" focuses on a doomed love affair but it does so to illustrate the errors in thinking that he felt marred his generation.

Gatsby is about the hollowness of the American dream as dreamt in the twenties. Fitzgerald looked around him (and in the mirror)and saw men and women locked in a frenzied and ultimatley doomed race for speed, money and sin. Gatsby and Daisy's love is doomed because their values have been distorted by money and comfort and opulence. They cannot see the depths because they are too easily distracted by shiny surfaces. When Daisy cries as Gatsby shows off his elegantly tailored shirts because she has never seen clothes so beautiful sums up perfectly how for her exteriors matter most. This is at the heart of the tragedy that unfolds before us in this delicious little novel.

There is no denying this is one of the GREAT BOOKS. If you haven't read it do so. I dare you to not fall in love with it.
(less)

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10/22/07

Brad rated it:

recommends it for: Car owners

This book becomes far better when you take all of Gatsby's mystery and just think of him as Batman. The whole book falls into place!

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10/07/08

Robin rated it:

Read in February, 2009

This was a bookclub read that I've not read for many many years. It was of course assigned reading in both high school and college. I remember pouring over all the various aspects of this book and picking it a part like disecting a frog.

Now that I'm older....much older. This reading broght a whole new light on this book for me. And I'm sorry to say....I think this book is HIGHLY overrated.

This book was never a sucess (either critically or via sales) when it was relea...more

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01/18/08

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in January, 2008

(The full review I wrote of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read a hundred so-called "classic" books for the first time, then write reports on whether I think they deserve the label

Book #3: "The Great Gatsby," by F Scott Fitzgerald

The story in a nutshell:
Considered by many to be the b...more (The full review I wrote of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read a hundred so-called "classic" books for the first time, then write reports on whether I think they deserve the label

Book #3: "The Great Gatsby," by F Scott Fitzgerald

The story in a nutshell:
Considered by many to be the best American novel ever written, The Great Gatsby is set in the years immediately following World War I (known as the Great War to his generation, in that World War II hadn't happened yet); it was an era known as the "Jazz Age," from a term that Fitzgerald himself coined in an earlier novel, a time of great moral confusion and upheaval around the world. And in fact, that's an important thing to know going into this novel, that it is as much an examination of a period in history as it is the unique story of certain fictional characters; the main reason to read the book, in fact, is to not only follow along with the potboilerish plot on display, but to indeed understand an entire generation of Americans and how they got to the point that they did. Because the fact is that the Great War left an entire generation in numb shock after it was over; turns out that no one quite realized the kind of carnage that could be caused by adding Industrial-Age machines to organized warfare, not to mention the millions upon millions of fresh victims who could be easily shipped to the front now via modernized rail, leaving a nihilistic shell of a generation behind in its blood-soaked wake. The youth that emerged from that war were very quick to discard the Victorian/Edwardian morality and mannerisms of previous generations, simply from seeing what it got them all; instead, this generation was the first to embrace free jazz, experimental poetry, pornography and more, done through a haze of illegal booze and drugs and with none of them really expecting to live past the age of 40.

It's among such a backdrop, then, that we meet a series of individuals from the Jazz Age, all of them connected in one way or another to a ritzy section of New York borough Long Island: there is Jordan, for example, the haughty pro golfer who's also a pathological liar; Daisy, a preternaturally jaded young wife and alcoholic; Tom, her blustery and frat-boyish husband; Myrtle, the swarthy mechanic's wife who Tom is having an affair with; Nick, the middle-class midwesterner everyman narrator of our tale; and a lot more, emphasizing Fitzgerald's point that such people tend to become interchangeable when met under the blurry lights of an endless series of cocktail parties. All of these people, however, hinge around the mystery man in the center, the charming and attractive Jay Gatsby (Nick's next-door neighbor, through a strange series of circumstances), who has so many rumors swirling about him that they are like an industry unto themselves: that he is a bootlegger, that he is a war profiteer, that he is a relative of the deposed Kaiser, that he was a secret agent, that he actually lives on a giant yacht that never pulls ashore.

What's the real story? And why does Gatsby go to so much trouble to cloud the issue? Well, to understand that is to understand...(less)

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03/23/09

Claire rated it:

Fitzgerald’s insight in this book cuts through the blinding American optimism of the time. Though at the time he wrote The Great Gatsby he could not have foreseen the economic and cultural crisis approaching in 1929, he is clearly suspicious and wary of the culture surrounding him, and the tone of this book expresses that he expects evil will come of it. His characters put their faith and their trust in unstable things- wealth, social superiority, commercialism, the power of culture- and the...more

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10/03/08

Erin added it

you know what the most awkward thing about getting compliments on goodreads is? when you traipse over to that person's booklist to stalk them--- er... return the favor on one of their reviews, i mean. you're all happy and hopeful and like "squee! a new friend!" until *le gasp*:

you realize there is absolutely NOTHING on their booklist you have ever read. or considered reading. or, actually... heard of.

now, it's either one of two things. they're a super hippy...more

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09/25/07

Erin rated it:

Read in August, 2007

I just don't get the hype on this one. Then again, I guess there's a reason why this book was unpopular and forgotten about for the first 20-30 years after it was first published. Personally, it makes no difference to me that this is supposed to be an "important" literary novel, as I like to make those conclusions for myself rather than going with the masses just because it's the masses. I found this book to be quite boring and rather depressing. Thankfully it was a short one day r...more

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03/05/08

Heidi rated it:

bookshelves: literature

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: lovers of literature

So much of the lore surrounding this book focuses on Gatsby that I was surprised to finally meet him a quarter of the way into the book.

More than Gatsby, I am interested in the almost nameless narrator. Questions to consider: Why does he consider Gatsby great? Why is he peering back through time, sifting through the pale memories for the bright spots of color that mark the significant people and moments?

Allow yourself to sink into the greys, and be just as startled as N...more So much of the lore surrounding this book focuses on Gatsby that I was surprised to finally meet him a quarter of the way into the book.

More than Gatsby, I am interested in the almost nameless narrator. Questions to consider: Why does he consider Gatsby great? Why is he peering back through time, sifting through the pale memories for the bright spots of color that mark the significant people and moments?

Allow yourself to sink into the greys, and be just as startled as Nick Carraway when a color reveals itself. I noticed no mention of color, or of grey, is trivial. I think the more intriguing character is Nick, not Gatsby. This can be missed because all the sparkle and dash of the parties, the drama, and the larger-than-life Gatsby can keep the reader flitting about on the surface, rather than sinking deeper for significant Nick moments. Nick, after all, is the one in the book who changes. It may not be that Gatsby is great, but that Nick's perception of Gatsby is great, and I find myself wondering, How did that affect the rest of Nick's life?

Nick says up front, "When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses in the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn."

Nick seems to need to downplay the impact that significant people and events have on him, such as Jordan Baker. "She was incurably dishonest." That seems to be attractive to him. Then Nick reveals this about himself: "Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."

I leave you with the first glimpse of Gatsby.

"I was still with Jordan Baker. We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age and a rowdy little girl who gave way upon the slightest provocation to uncontrollable laughter. I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger bowls of champagne and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound."

See the book for the smile that comes next.
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02/12/08

Denise rated it:

bookshelves: books-i-love-so-much-i-bought, classics

Read in June, 2003

recommended to Denise by: Book Group
recommends it for: Lovers of Classics, Roaring 20's

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

First, this is the only time that I ever heard of a guy plotting so well to get what he wanted without everyone finding out his plan. Gatsby planned everything - the house, the location, the money, the parties, the friends, everything just so Daisy would just happen upon him. Why didn't he just pick up the phone and call her or send her a letter instead of planning for five years? Usually it's a girl who will go thru all that trouble so that no one discovers what she is really up to.

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03/07/08

Qt rated it:

bookshelves: drama

Read in March, 2008

I didn't know what "The Great Gatsby" was going to be about, when I started this one, so it was great fun to experience it without knowing where it would lead! And, I quite enjoyed the book; I loved the beautiful writing style, and since I love books set in the 20s (or 30s, or 40s, or 50s) that was an added bonus. The relationships, personalities, and emotions of all the characters were described very beautifully, even when things took a darker turn, and while the book isn't a happy on...more

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09/04/07

Dave rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap

recommended to Dave by: Forced to read
recommends it for: I don't know

If one can ignore The Great Gatsby's tendencies of being slow, uninteresting, and generally unattractive to our nation's children, then he/she can begin to fully appreciate its glowing portions: A deep moral core, a few themes (Deteriorating American Dream of the pre-American Depression era, and how shallow rich people are so shallow), and a multitude of symbols (Valley of Ashes, The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, and the Green Light).

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05/15/08

Kayley Mckay rated it:

“The Great Gatsby,” is a novel that is loved by many generations of readers and I’m certain that you will enjoy reading it too. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is known as one of the great American classics of 20th century literature. I really like “The Great Gatsby” because it is a modernist novel that takes place during the Jazz Age. It perfectly portrays the decline of the American dream in the 1920s and exposes the emptiness and moral decay of upper class life on the Eas...more “The Great Gatsby,” is a novel that is loved by many generations of readers and I’m certain that you will enjoy reading it too. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is known as one of the great American classics of 20th century literature. I really like “The Great Gatsby” because it is a modernist novel that takes place during the Jazz Age. It perfectly portrays the decline of the American dream in the 1920s and exposes the emptiness and moral decay of upper class life on the East Coast. It was first published in 1925, a time when the economy soared and prohibition made millionaires out of bootleggers.
The story unfolds through Nick Carraway’s point of view. Nick moved from Minnesota to a community for the newly wealthy known as the West Egg of Long Island. He graduated from Yale, fought in WWII and wanted to learn the bond business in New York. He is a honest man and has reserved judgment. People easily trust him with their secrets throughout the novel. In the West Egg, Nick befriends his neighbor Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, a man who dedicated his life to becoming wealthy, is well-known in Long Island for the lavish parties he throws in his mansion.
As the relationship between Gatsby and Nick is strengthened, Nick finds out Gatsby is in love with his cousin Daisy. Daisy Buchanan met Gatsby at a training camp in Louisville. They fell in love and she promised to wait for him when he went to war. She eventually gave up on waiting and married a wealthy, arrogant and hypocritical man of the old aristocratic community of Long Island known as the East Egg. I didn’t like him because he tended to not live up to the standards of morality he demanded from others. The moral conflicts are revealed when superficial socialites are caught hiding the pain of infidelity.
Nick is introduced to Daisy’s friend Jordan Baker near the time of his arrival. She is a cynical and self-centered competitive golfer who is eventually set up with Nick. She is beautiful but often bends the truth. Jordan tells Nick about Tom’s affair with a lady named Myrtle. Myrtle Wilson is a curvy woman who lives above her husband’s auto shop in a place referred to as the Valley of Ashes. The place is an important setting because it defines what the American dream is not. The ruin of the community perfectly reveals the false aspects of the American dream. Myrtle is ashamed to live there because Tom is wealthy. She uses the affair to create a classy and sophisticated image that many people of the 1920s longed to reflect. However, nobody buys the disguise. I think the book is a good read because many people can relate to Myrtle when she pretended to be something she is not.
The fast paced style of writing excites the reader and makes you want to flip to the last page to find out how the story turns out. Many can relate to numerous issues the characters face. Nick eventually rekindles the love that Daisy had for Gatsby. This made me extremely happy when I was reading the book. Fitzgerald wrote, “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips touch, she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.” Fitzgerald’s description of their kiss was so intimate and beautiful that it made me wonder if he took this from personal experience. It wasn’t a cheesy love scene we often read in current novels. The phrasing is perfection. I remember reading that part over and over. I’m sure you will too.
As the situations and conversations become more heated, things get complicated. When Tom learns of Gatsby and Daisy, things begin to get messy. I enjoyed reading about the loose atmosphere of Gatsby’s red-carpet-like parties. It was also entertaining to read about the tension between Tom and Daisy at the dinner table. Some of the details I’m not giving away will really catch you off guard. It’s a thrilling adventure. In the end, Nick realizes Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was destroyed by dishonesty and money just like the American dream of individualism and happiness has disintegrated into a pursuit of wealthiness. Nick concludes that Gatsby’s ability to transform his dreams into reality is what makes him “great” and like Gatsby’s dream, the American dream is over. Fitzgerald’s great American classic appeals to anyone with good taste. The upbeat social scene of New York in the 1920s is appealing in itself! I think many can make personal connections with some of the conflicts the characters struggle with throughout this lovely novel. I highly recommend this one. It’s pretty great!
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quotes from this book

""And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther ... And one fine morning ---"" More quotes...