The Great Gatsby in Classics Without All the Class

Mar 19, 2012 Audrey rated it liked it

Shelves: 1920s, fiction, listens, classics, american-literature

Summer 2012: When I was reading this book, I hated it: the swearing, the debauchery, the drinking, the licentiousness . . . all of it. I didn't relate to or care a fig for any of the vapid, one-dimensional characters. The writing was a bit difficult for me to get into at first—it seemed almost self-consciously grandiose—but as it progressed I began to gain a bit of appreciation for the quirky, flippant, almost lyrical prose. However, I still found the whole storyline superficial and almost farci ...more

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May 14, 2013 Susan Weinstein rated it it was amazing

Is GATSBY the Great American Novel or just a pretender?

“Whether it’s something that happened twenty years ago or only yesterday, I must start out with an emotion—one that’s close to me and that I can understand.” F.Scott Fitzgerald

This quote is key to Fitzgerald, a source of strength and criticism as a weakness-- especially in his rivalry with Hemingway. I felt revisiting this novel was like reading a diary about a lost love— nostalgic, bitter-sweet, and touching. A huge success in its era, GAT ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Mr. Twinkie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: best-of-classics, thebest100list, 1920-1930

So maybe "The Great Gatsby" is good at describing the life of the rich overclass during the 1920's but it still puzzles me that this book is rated to be among the greatest litterature in the world. Since a lot of people first "fell in love" with the book at their second reading of it I will give this book a second chance. However, that second chance will not be tomorrow or in the nearby future. At the present moment this book seems to be the product of "Americans love themselves"-litterature; li ...more

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