Book Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Never, ever, read this book.

Here’s a fun fact: we don’t have required reading in Norway (at least we didn’t in the 90’s where I grew up). That’s not to say I didn’t have to read things, I just didn’t have to read loads of old books from some arbitrary, outdated list. But I’m trying to make up for it now that I’m older, since I’ve basically never read any classics. So far, I’ve gotten through Animal Farm and 1984 which I loved, The Picture of Dorian Gray which was alright, Lord of the Flies, which I didn’t hate and a few others. I don’t know, are these classics? They feel like they’re classics.

And so, in my quest to read more old books, I picked up The Great Gatsby when I had the chance. I actually got it for free from a woman I rented an Airbnb from. She had a huge shelf in her hallway and basically told me I could take anything I wanted, and after reading this one, I get why she wanted to get rid of it.

The main problem with The Great Gatsby is that it’s so incredibly boring.

The characters are boring. The period is set in is boring – I mean, is there anything worse than the Jazz Age? Everyone’s listening to jazz and being rich and boring, and it’s just the worst. The writing itself is boring. Even the plot – the mystery about Gatsby and why he is so great, which was the only thing that made me see this thing through, is incredibly boring.

Also, the payoff isn’t worth it. Not even a little bit.

It’s so boring!

I actually had to Google the plot and figure out if there was something I’d missed, some great mystery, some cool twist that would make it all come together. I hadn’t. The ending (the really boring and tedious ending) was all there was to it.

I also learned through Google that one of the reasons this book rose in popularity was that it was handed out to American soldiers who served overseas during World War II. I mean, if it takes soldiers suffering through a war to make a book sell, that… That speaks for itself.

So yeah, don’t read this book, honestly, unless you have a hardcore fascination with the world’s most boring time period or you want to read the worlds most tedious book. The Great Gatsby isn’t great at all.

Have you read this? What did you think? Am I insane, or is this actually a really boring book? Let me know in the comments! Oh, and read my books instead!