The Great Gatsby in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 12, 2013 Sunflower rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-read-2013, e-books

I wonder if this novella would have sunk without trace had it retained the title "Trimalchio in West Egg". Personally I would not have been drawn to even pick that title off the shelf- but then the only reason I have read it now is that I wanted to read it before seeing the movie.
I liked the language (even though some of it is quaint to our ears now) and the cautionary-tale commentary on the lifestyles of the characters- those shiftless, upper class denizens of the Jazz Age,divided into those w ...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Lauren⁷ 💜 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library-has-a-copy, classic-literature-the-classics

Watching the movie adaptation of a book before one reads the book on which the movie is based can be a curious thing. It can serve to enhance reading the book or it can serve to show what a bad adaptation the movie was. I saw Baz Luhrmann's take on Gatsby before I read this book and for me, it helped to enhance reading the book. I personally found Fitzgerald's writing to be pretty dry and being able to visualize scenes in my head, such as Gatsby's parties and his speeding through the city with N Watching the movie adaptation of a book before one reads the book on which the movie is based can be a curious thing. It can serve to enhance reading the book or it can serve to show what a bad adaptation the movie was. I saw Baz Luhrmann's take on Gatsby before I read this book and for me, it helped to enhance reading the book. I personally found Fitzgerald's writing to be pretty dry and being able to visualize scenes in my head, such as Gatsby's parties and his speeding through the city with Nick, helped with holding my attention and definitely helped to bring this book to life. Ian Fleming Fitzgerald is not. I would call Fitzgerald a very good writer, but not a very exciting one. In spite of that though, my attention was held and I found that this book read fast. I can't say that the actual plot was anything to write home about. I think because I find the plot to be very simplistic. Not in a bad way, mind you. And I think that was Fitzgerald's point. The plot was merely a hanger on which the clothing of the story hung. The clothing being the characters and their conflicts. I would say that this is a totally character driven book. I've seen many of my fellow reviewers commentate on how their dislike of a character, chiefly Daisy, was enough to throw them out of the story and cause them to rate the book lower. I am not the kind of reader who looks to or needs to connect with or in any way identify with characters in books in order for me to enjoy a book. Though, I certainly don't mind when it happens. I don't even need to like the characters in a book to enjoy a book. What I largely, but not exclusively felt for the characters in this book was apathy. I didn't love them or hate them. Though I did think Daisy was a twit and I thought Gatsby was more in love with an ideal of Daisy and what that ideal meant to him than he was in love with the actual person. And I further thought that he would have been far better off letting go of Daisy and pursuing some girl actually worth his time and effort. Not some twit who he felt he had to woo and impress by becoming rich and throwing lavish parties in vain hopes that she would attend one. That alone should have told him something about what kind of person Daisy is. And I know that that was Fitzgerald's intent. I totally got that this book is a social commentary on the decadence of the era and a rather scathing critique of just how shallow humanity can be. Particularly when one throws a great deal of money into the mix. I've seen this described as "the great American novel" and per Wikipedia, the great American novel is "the concept of a novel that is distinguished in both craft and theme as being the most accurate representation of the spirit of the age in the United States at the time of its writing or in the time it is set." Do I feel it succeeds in that respect? Absolutely. Fitzgerald brought the 1920's to life and definitely showed the decadence of the decade. To quote Nick's narration from the Lurhmann adaptation, "New York. 1922. The tempo of the city had changed sharply. The buildings were higher, the parties were bigger, the morals were looser and the liquor was cheaper. The restlessness approached hysteria." And Fitzgerald captured all of that with perfect clarity, because of course, he lived it. How did Gatsby become so rich? (view spoiler) If that's not far looser morals, I don't know what is. And as for those bigger parties and restlessness? Well, I leave you with this scene from the movie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgcuBO... And on that note, I did find that I somewhat liked Nick and I thought he was a good narrator and quite a contrast to Gatsby. In fact, I think that Nick was the only character to look at the other characters with clarity and see them for who they really are. Being homeschooled, I was not forced to read this novel in high school and I'm glad I wasn't. At the time of the writing of this review, I'm 21. I'm old enough, I think, to appreciate this book. Though I certainly did appreciate the fact that my copy came in at just 180 pages. I haven't read too many classics, but I'm glad that I read this and I think I'll even read it again. I am somebody who loves the 1920's and I know a lot about the era and I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the era. And on a side note, my copy came from the library and someone had underlined passages and written notes in the margins and even crossed words out and wrote words under them. Which I did find a bit jarring and I thought was highly rude on the part of whoever did that. If one wants to underline and write notes in the margins, that's fine. But it should be done in a copy that belongs to the reader. Not a library book. ...more

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