The Great Gatsby

In 1922, F Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple, intricately patterned". That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned and, above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace be comes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties and waits for her to appear. When s he does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbour Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. Perry Freeman, Amazon.com

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What a read! - Rated
I had just finished "The Old Man and the Sea" (which I didn't get on with) when I started reading "The Great Gatsby", and I'm so glad I perservered! TGG is a great read. It's fast-paced from the outset, and gripping towards the end - I couldn't put it down. I even tried to convince family and friends to read it afterwards; but to no avail. Definitely recommended.

The great American novel? - Rated
Beautifully written, spare, dramatic and haunting - could this at last be the great American novel?

Good, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. - Rated
A rather interesting novel and initially it wasn't all that apparent to me why people always linked the failure of the American dream and this story together. Superficially the story is that of love reawakening, Gatsby having initially been rejected by his childhood love for not having sufficient means acquires the means through various ill gotten ways and the lovers reunite despite the fact that she is not married to a boorish but very American man. Much is made that this novel is a startling exposition of the American dream and materialism, and it does this but to a lesser extent than most people make out. I didn't find the metaphors to be profound after reflection nor did I think the plot and language to be that great. That said it still was a fairly good book, an enjoyable read though a bit of anti-climax to what I had been expecting. The characters aren't particularly likeable and stay only briefly in memory, the story entertains but I feel that this book doesn't deserve all the acclaim it has got.

Few books grip your imagination as easily as this one - Rated
Oh, the casual ease with which this romance is written is staggering. It is not without its little faults as a whole, but then what book is?! The sad and whistful story of a nearly man is entirley subordinate to the smoothly poetic style it is written in and yet is complemented perfectly by it, and elevated by it. This is a really melancholy tale and if you're feeling a bit emotionally down for whatever reason, I'd even put off reading it until you're fighting fit again, as it really is affecting. Some may want a more concrete story than the author is clearly willing to give, but if you can live with (deliberate) vagueness of details and you love a good mystery and a romance then you cannot go wrong with this delightful story.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Rated
I have to agree with some previous reviewers for the start of my own review of the great gatsby. Whether this book lives up to its reputation as a masterpiece i am unsure, it is, however, a great read and i highly reccomend it.
I feel that some of the story may be lost on me, as although the author tries, and quite often succeeds, to transport me to the east coast of the united states during the early twentieth century, i feel i sometimes cannot relate to the somewhat unfamiliar surroundings.
This however is almost definatley a lack of imagination on my part, and the author creates a vivid, vibrant and very real portrait of the period. The characters, especially Gatsby are very alive on the page, and the story, is beautiful, yet tragic, and served to me as some kind of modern parable about true friends and loneliness. Definatley a book to add to the 'must read' list!