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The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Start date: March 2, 2015

Finish date: March 31, 2015

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Jul 02, 2013 Daiva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013

While reading this book I had a problem comparing with with movie but I was not disappointed in either of them. It was probably the first time when movie was so well recreated (not sure how to say) and almost everything I read in this book I found in movie as well which was a good thing because it makes me wonder what I liked more and at the same time give 5 stars for this amazing Fitzgerald book.

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Apr 20, 2014 David Ciferri rated it it was amazing

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is hugely popular and a literary classic. It deserves both distinctions.

Who was The Great Gatsby? The short answer is James Gatz, who came from a poor farming family but left North Dakota at seventeen with a driving instinct for glory. In reinventing himself as Jay Gatsby he took on the persona he needed to pursue this glory.

As a lieutenant in World War I Gatsby met Daisy Fay of Louisville, and from that moment his drive fused with the limitless love he f F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is hugely popular and a literary classic. It deserves both distinctions.

Who was The Great Gatsby? The short answer is James Gatz, who came from a poor farming family but left North Dakota at seventeen with a driving instinct for glory. In reinventing himself as Jay Gatsby he took on the persona he needed to pursue this glory.

As a lieutenant in World War I Gatsby met Daisy Fay of Louisville, and from that moment his drive fused with the limitless love he felt for her. Daisy married another, wealthier, man while Gatsby was at war. Then the war ended, and Gatsby set out to claim her.

Daisy lived in splendor on Long Island. Gatsby made a fortune (don’t ask how) and bought a mansion across the bay from her. He threw fabulous parties for hundreds of people on the chance she would wander by. When she didn’t, he found other means of pursuit.

The novel sounds highly plotted, but in fact the narrative is slight. The story is held aloft by Fitzgerald’s dazzling, idiosyncratic descriptive style. His narrator, Nick Carraway (Daisy’s cousin and Gatsby’s neighbor), takes the reader through Jazz Age New York apartments, Long Island palaces, and coal-smoked wastelands with a keen eye and a singular verve. He answers the question asked by almost everyone taking up the novel – Why is Gatsby great? – in part by contrasting him with the feckless fops who attend his parties. While the partygoers slosh through liquor, babble inanities, and smash up Rolls Royces, Gatsby single-mindedly pursues his dream of love. He enjoys the trappings of wealth, but he would throw his mansion, his car, and every last silk shirt on one of the novel’s famous ash heaps if doing so would win him Daisy.

What about Daisy? To many readers she comes off as shallow and, at story’s end, even callous. Why does Gatsby love her? The question is unanswerable. I think Fitzgerald daringly placed an unsympathetic character at the center of Gatsby’s affections to show that love is experienced by the individual, not the multitude.

For me, having read the novel more than once over the course of many years, the title fits its subject. As for Daisy, I don’t love her. In fact, I don’t even like her. But what of it? I’m not The Great Gatsby.
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May 12, 2013 Ashley rated it it was amazing

I read this, like many people before me, for the first time in High School. I have finished reading it a second time yesterday at the age of 25. Looking back I've realized I did not see what the work was truly about. I feel at that age you cannot appreciate the novel for what it's worth in its entirety. By reading it a second time at a later stage in my life I have taken away a completely different perspective than what I had as a teenager. I look forward to re-reading it at an even later stage ...more

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Dec 15, 2013 Tomi rated it really liked it

This novel mean so much to me now that I am an adult. When I first read the novel in the 11th grade, I did not understand the hype for the novel. After the second time I read the novel I have received so much from it. First, I think of the thought of living the American Dream, but Gatsby was not concern with the American Dream! His sole dream was to win over the love of his life! As I read the novel, I also notice how it reflects to our current society. How many people want to become rich becaus ...more

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Jan 06, 2021 Laura Prindable rated it really liked it

Thank you Net Galley for an audio copy of this book. This is my first experience with The Great Gatsby. The narrator was awesome. The book however, was not my cup of tea. Although I do appreciate the story.

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