The Great Gatsby in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 13, 2012 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, classics, bookslut-100-books, owned

(this review was originally written for bookslut)

When I started reading The Great Gatsby I believed two things: First, that Gatsby was on our 100 best books list, and second, that I had read it before in high school. I now know the first to be untrue and suspect the second. Although there are a great number of books I read in high school that I now only vaguely remember (Wuthering Heights being the other book that I can recall almost nothing of now), I really think I could not have read Gatsby b (this review was originally written for bookslut)

When I started reading The Great Gatsby I believed two things: First, that Gatsby was on our 100 best books list, and second, that I had read it before in high school. I now know the first to be untrue and suspect the second. Although there are a great number of books I read in high school that I now only vaguely remember (Wuthering Heights being the other book that I can recall almost nothing of now), I really think I could not have read Gatsby before, as unfamiliar as it is to me now.

But really, more importantly, how in the world did The Great Gatsby not end up on our list of books? Jessa just happened to call me shortly after reading it, as I had a list of the 100 books in my hands and had just realized that not only was Gatsby not on *my* list of books to read, but it wasn't on the list at all! Jessa was also shamed by our oversight, but neither of us are at all interested in changing the list now. As much work as it took to make it, I don't want to have to decide which book comes off to make room for it!

So how about I just tell you what I thought of the book, as if I were reviewing it for the list anyway? By now, everyone should know the basic plot: Gatsby, a tremendously rich man, is terribly and secretly in love with Daisy, who is married and lives across the harbour on Long Island. The story is told from the point of view of Nick, Gatsby's neighbor and Daisy's distant cousin, who of course gets deeply enmeshed in the whole affair.

Now this is a book to read slowly, which is difficult to do as it is so short and the temptation to race through it is overwhelming. (Especially if you do most of your reading, as I do, sitting in a chair facing a wall of unread and accusatory books.) However if you don't read it slowly, you'll regret it, as it will all race by far too quickly, you'll be left wanting more, and the only thing to do for it will be to read it again. Which I would do, if I were not already knee-deep in The Plague, which actually is on the list even though it is not nearly as enjoyable as Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is ultimately a tragedy, a beautifully wrought tragedy. It paints a not too flattering picture of the American Dream through a story as layered as it is simple, as off-putting as it is charming. It is one of those rare books that stays with you after you have put it down. I find that I am warming to it even now, becoming more fond of the characters, appreciating the storyline more.... Yes, I do think I will read this book again before the summer is over.

The Great Gatsby is an American classic. If no one made you read it in high school (or if they did, and you can't remember it anyway), you should go read it now. If you do, look for the authorized text, which corrects some annoying mistakes in previous versions. And please, above all, read it slowly. ...more

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Jul 21, 2009 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: new-york-city, book-club-books

i read this book in high school, and am now picking it up again with the book club. i honestly think that my opinion of it will be drastically different, as i am in many ways a drastically different person. the whole college/living in new york/traveling the world/growing in faith thing tends to do that. i am excited to see what comes out this time, and will update my review accordingly.

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Jun 02, 2010 mehg-hen rated it it was amazing

Slightly distracted by "coupé" every six sentences.
In high school I thought this was the dumbest book I ever read in my life. Now it is very real and confusing and is like trying to get a hair out of your mouth over and over.
Oh Nick. Oh thinning briefcase of enthusiasm. Oh afternoon under the tree in a storm.

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Read again 10/19/16. You too can read it on your phone. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitz...
So much I forgot. "The yolks of their eyes." The ladies on the couches in the breeze. His d Slightly distracted by "coupé" every six sentences.
In high school I thought this was the dumbest book I ever read in my life. Now it is very real and confusing and is like trying to get a hair out of your mouth over and over.
Oh Nick. Oh thinning briefcase of enthusiasm. Oh afternoon under the tree in a storm.

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Read again 10/19/16. You too can read it on your phone. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitz...
So much I forgot. "The yolks of their eyes." The ladies on the couches in the breeze. His descriptions of light and of place. Of parties good and bad. Jordan balancing things on her chin. And Daisy crying in the shirts which might somehow contain the gobstopper blob of emotion that once you understand it, lets you know you're an adult. Or not.

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Read again Jan 2019
I saw the play Gatz, where a theater company called the Elevator Repair Service reads/performs the entire book. You understand it in entirely new ways, and really now I feel like "oh are we all SUPPOSED to listen to audiobooks?" It made me want to leave the show, go to a time machine, find Fitzgerald in the 20's and punch him hard in the face, then come back and keep that a secret for the rest of my life. It would simply be retaliation for what I feel like he did to me, goddamnit, and I would win in a court of law, if persecuted. The word "coupé" is still annoying, which I would also crow about if for some reason, after I punched him in the 20's, his friends pinned me down and made me explain myself. I would hopefully be VERY insulting about "coupé" to shift any and all attention from the fact that I would burst into tears about his ability to notice, and his ability to see the humane and real hope and longing inside every person?

Thankfully, I would get away easily because he is so obsessed with women's looks, his own looks, and who's-better-than-who and I would fail on lots of levels. Or else he would see into the dead center of my heart.

Just some new gems I keep thinking about: how a woman changes into a dress and how it affects her, the difference between a nervous dinner party and a real, effortless dinner party. The fucking end of the book, that made me want to become an exploded fire hydrant of vomit, until I was just a skin bag someone else had to reinflate.

I would also punch Hemingway, not out of retaliation. I would also win in a court of law. ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Renata rated it really liked it

Shelves: grownup, fiction, classics

i re-read this in september because i was going to go to a great gatsby themed picnic. didn't end up hitting the picnic, but it still a classic of american literature blah blah blah hooray. ...more

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