The Great Gatsby in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jan 23, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, fiction

May 2013 Review:
Wow, what a difference a few years makes. In preparation for the upcoming movie, I picked up The Great Gatsby as the first pleasure of the summer. I remember being in a bit of a fog when I read the story back in 2010, and I think I sped through it quickly sometime in late 2011, but this time.. this time there was something special.

I firmly believe that there are times when the right book is picked up for that time in your life. As I look forward to changes, from graduation to a m May 2013 Review:
Wow, what a difference a few years makes. In preparation for the upcoming movie, I picked up The Great Gatsby as the first pleasure of the summer. I remember being in a bit of a fog when I read the story back in 2010, and I think I sped through it quickly sometime in late 2011, but this time.. this time there was something special.

I firmly believe that there are times when the right book is picked up for that time in your life. As I look forward to changes, from graduation to a move thousands of miles away, I needed a story that not only had lush imagery, but also heart-breaking tragedy. It wasn't necessarily that I felt strongly for any of the characters, although I did feel a bit of an affinity for Daisy Buchanan this time around, but instead I felt sorrow for how empty the life of Gatsby was. I think this is also because I have been immersed in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (and that series first made me aware of the 1919 World Series story, which was mentioned in Gatsby!) and I have been made super-aware of how lavish life isn't all its cut out to be. Money does not power make, and this story is a prime-example of that. For all of his money, Gatsby never actually achieved or acquired what he wanted, and then when he made that decision to enter his pool in an attempt to actually enjoy a part of his life...well, you know. (Trying to stay away from spoilers - even though this is an older book.)

I cannot wait to see the spin that Leo DiCaprio puts on Gatsby and I think that the descriptions and over-the-top style that makes this book such a beautiful thing will translate well to the screen.

January 2010 Review:
I'm really, unacceptably late in reading this novel. I've heard about it and had a general idea of what the plot was but, for some reason or another, never actually sat down to read through it.

Although it's relatively short at 180 pages it took me a good day to chew my way through it. I loved how simple but completely immersed I became through setting - from the very start. Images from movies, pictures and my own imagination filled my head throughout my reading experience. At times it was so intense I could almost hear the voices and the clinking of glasses during one of Gatsby's parties.

It's fascinating to me how very little there was to the actual story but the book seems so full. There's scandal, romance, heartbreak and tragedy all wrapped up in these pages and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading it. It's always a little daunting approaching a classic and knowing that when you put it down you plan to review it - because everyone takes something different from each book. What I took from this book was vivid imagery and the satisfaction of now knowing what others are talking about when they speak of it. ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Christina rated it liked it

I have a joke about the title of this book. It's really great. Are you ready? Here it is.
Q. Why did F. Scott Fitzgerald call his book "The Great Gatsby?"
A. Because "Great Expectations" was already taken.
Get it? Because Gatsby has all these expectations about how things are going to be with Daisy and everyone's imagining how their life will be better and...get it?
Okay, it's not a great joke, but Gatsby's not great, either. Nor is he Gatsby. The whole title is a lie, or sarcastic, or deeply mean I have a joke about the title of this book. It's really great. Are you ready? Here it is.
Q. Why did F. Scott Fitzgerald call his book "The Great Gatsby?"
A. Because "Great Expectations" was already taken.
Get it? Because Gatsby has all these expectations about how things are going to be with Daisy and everyone's imagining how their life will be better and...get it?
Okay, it's not a great joke, but Gatsby's not great, either. Nor is he Gatsby. The whole title is a lie, or sarcastic, or deeply meaningful in a multitude of ways that have been analyzed and/or bullshitted to death over the years (and yes, I do get the more obvious showman meaning to it, too). This is why I'm always leery of writing reviews of classic novels. No one wants to be that asshole who goes "Ah, yes, the symbolism of the green light is that Gatsby interprets it as a "go" signal and the tragedy is that he dies in the water, water having been that thing which separated him from Daisy..." On the other hand, no one wants to be the asshole who goes "GAWD I had to read this in high school and all the people talked funny and I think the author was a jerk and what was up with the Jazz Age, anyway?" Current plan: be the asshole who muses about it a bit and then goes on her way.
So why did I read this book? No one made me read it in high school, which is apparently when the rest of the American population got to it.
Maybe I decided to read this book because I always felt I should.
Maybe it's the iconic cover, which I've seen on a lot of t-shirts recently (thanks, Out of Print books! My very favorite clothing store ever, by the way, and I immediately want their ENTIRE scifi collection).
Maybe it's the fact that it's short and a pretty quick read to get off the "great books I should read" list.
Maybe it's so I have a surefire winner the next time I take one of those "how well-read are you?" quizzes that pop up every year. I have a bone to pick with those quizzes. I consider myself a literary lady, so I usually take these quizzes expecting to get, oh, around a 40 out of 100. But the last few times I've taken them, I've gotten around half that with a condescending response about how I'm just starting out reading, clearly, and should keep at it. And one reason why is because the quiz will pick out specific books I haven't read by authors I HAVE. I've never read "Silas Marner," "The Old Man and the Sea," "David Copperfield," or "Romeo and Juliet." If they'd just asked about "Middlemarch," "Felix Holt," or "Daniel Deronda"! Why wasn't there a box to check for "No, but I HAVE read 'The Sun Also Rises'"? If they'd just listed one of the four or five other Dickens novels I HAVE read! Seriously? I've read "Cymbeline," damn you! Why doesn't that count?
But with "The Great Gatsby," I have a clear winner on my hands. No "How Well Read Are You" quiz worth its salt will list another Fitzgerald over "Gatsby." Maybe this year I can score well enough to avoid the condescending note at the end.
Or maybe I just wanted to see if there was more to the book than what's summarized and spoofed in Kate Beaton's amazing comics about it: http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=259. "Old as balls," indeed.
For whatever reason, I went ahead and read it, and indeed it was a quick read and I didn't hate it as much as I was afraid I would in the beginning. Truly, and I think I'm stepping into my old shoes as Minority Opinion Girl here, for me Nick Carraway is one of the smuggest, most instantly off-putting narrators in literature. I mean, the first 3 pages of the novel can be summarized as "I am the most open-minded guy you will ever meet. That means I hear the life stories of all kinds of whack jobs. Occasionally they're too wacky even for me!" Am I the only one who sees a wee contradiction here? I can't be. Ugh. Nick reminds me of a hippie teen going "no, it's all good, man. I don't know why you can't be more mellow, chill out. I'm good with everything" who's OBVIOUSLY JUDGING YOU while congratulating himself on how open-minded and judgment-free he is. Also, Nick's mellowness is the kind that will just kind of sit back and let horrible things happen. Like, genocide levels of horrible things.
I thought Gatsby's presence enlivened the book considerably once he showed up, although neither he nor anyone else was particularly likeable. I would love to read a novel about the drunk man with glasses in the library, or the Italian kid setting off bottle rockets on the train tracks. There were characters I could get behind. Every so often I had to shake my head a little and think "I GET it. Everyone's really fake! Rich people are assholes and absurdly privileged! I AM GETTING A CONCUSSION FROM ALL THE HITTING ME OVER THE HEAD YOU ARE DOING!"
But there were bright spots, too. Daisy wasn't as awful as I expected her to be. I thought a large part of the problem was Gatsby's crazy expectations of her. Also, he SOMEHOW wound up in Oxford on the way home from the war? "No, really, babe, I'll be home soon, I just got mislaid in England for some reason. That's cool, right? You'll wait for me, because you've NEVER LOVED ANYONE BUT ME EVER IN YOUR LIFE, right? Babe?" All Daisy gets validation for is being a beautiful little fool. What encourages her to be a real person? Oh, don't get me wrong, she's still awful, I was just expecting something like Isabelle from "The Razor's Edge," given both her rep and Fitzgerald's fully-justified rep as a misogynist.
I also found basically everything after the car accident reasonably moving. Almost more so than could be justified by the rest of the book. I found it interesting that, like Tennessee Williams, Fitzgerald seems to be on the side of the people who cling to their dreams and delusions, as long as they're beautiful and romantic dreams and delusions. Maybe it's an American writer thing.
And that brings me to what I think is the book's real strength: Fitzgerald was a damn good writer. He was just very skillful. His descriptions are mostly gorgeous, and he's really excellent at setting a scene. For me where the book falls short is that he just doesn't seem to feel a lot of sympathy for his characters. I don't mean that they have to be perfect people, just that the author appears to have a certain scorn for them. That always leads me to feel a certain "well, if you don't care about them, why should I?"
This entire review could have been that last paragraph, but I just had to get out there and blab about it. I can't help it, it's the English minor in me. Everyone else has written scads of overanalysis on this book, and damn it, it's my turn. But for a really great review, I suggest clicking the link above and reading Kate Beaton's comics.
P.S. Note on the edition I was reading: all over the cover and the prologue and the afterword it was emphasized that this, THIS was the definitive, authorized edition. Like they wouldn't shut up about it. I had to wonder: is there another version somewhere where the Eggs turn out to be giant monster eggs and Godzilla shows up? Or are they just really, really proud to be typo-free? ...more

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May 09, 2011 Jude rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal as an actor, but I did not love his narration. His imitation of Jewish characters was awkward (which is surprising since he's Jewish).

This book is bleak. Nick is the only redeemable character and you could argue that he makes himself look the best since the story was told from his perspective.

Gatsby is pathetic. I totally understand that first loves are the hardest to shake, but he literally gets himself killed over a woman who is very clearly using him to hurt he ...more

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