The Great Gatsby in Classics Without All the Class

Mar 19, 2012 Audrey rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 1920s, 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

3 likes · Like · see review

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

Like · see review

Dec 01, 2012 Grandpa Jud rated it it was amazing

I have given this book 5 stars. The hard part is explaining why. Several principal characters seem to me to be shallow. Their conversations are often insipid and uninspired. Yet there is something intriguing about their lives or about the plot that draws me in. An editorial blurb on the cover of my copy of the audiobook claims that the book "was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation." Perhaps so, but if that's true, it doesn't appear to cast that generation in a particularl ...more

Like · see review