The Great Gatsby: A Book Review

Hello Dreamers!



It's crazy to think that this is the first book review I've ever written. Nonetheless, it is true that I have no layout or guide for how this is going to work, so... bear with me.

 

The Great Gatsby - a thoroughly American book that is set in the Roaring 20's and lavishly dripping with wealth and tragedy.

 

I first read this book as a reading assignment in an American Literature class. Strangely enough, I ended up being the only student in the class who really liked the book. However, as that year was a rather confusing one for me, I decided to refrain from adding it to my favorites list in case I had somehow been sick in the head during that assignment. (There's nothing worse than proclaiming yourself a devotee of something and then going back and realizing how foolish you were...) In short, something reminded me of a certain novel I read once upon a time (probably the new movie which..., let's just say, looks odd.), and I decided to reread it.

 

For those of you who haven't read The Great Gatsby, it's about a man named Jay Gatsby. Actually, it's about a man named Nick Carraway who meets a man named Jay Gatsby and then writes about it. Regardless, the story follows the tale of Gatsby, a mysterious rich man who owns the luxurious mansion next door to Nick's little house. Gatsby throws parties on a regular basis and eventually makes friends with Nick. It would seem that Nick attracts troubled people. Nick's cousin Daisy Buchanan (now married) is also in the area, and it is eventually revealed that Gatsby and Daisy have a bit of a history. Shenanigans ensue.

 

I seriously have a hard time pinning down the exact reason for my enchantment with this book, but I will do my best.

 

My love for it may have something to do with the portrayal of the time period. It depicts such a memorable decade in a romanticized way and yet, it shows how tragic faults were still so deeply rooted in society. Still, the rich society's proceedings and utter carelessness, the youth and just... lavishness of it all is so... appealing. In a very odd way.

 

Perhaps it has something to do with the tragedy. It may come as a shock to you that I actually like this book due to a few themes inherent in the 1920's. The characters practically swim in all kinds of scandal - things I usually frown upon. However, the way that Fitzgerald carefully crafts the end of the book is genius. (And old books are so much more delicate about these things... the movie adaptations? Not so much.) The characters were flawed. Magical in a way perhaps, but flawed. The genius of it all is that they get what they deserve in the end. The Great Gatsby does not support what the books displays. It simply displays and leaves the discerning up to you.

 

More likely it's the reoccurring theme of dreams to far away to ever come true. Gatsby spends literally everything he has in pursuit of one dream. A dream that if he'd been more observant, he'd have realized it had stepped just out of his reach long ago. And yet Gatsby keeps pushing. He keeps dreaming that one dream. He's an utter childlike fool.

 

It could be that I relate to Nick Carraway. (He's basically the embodiment of those moments when you feel like you're the only person in the room who isn't wasting away on short lived pleasures.)

 

Whatever the case, F. Scott Fitzgerald is a genius. His writing is truly superb (and to prove it I've ended this post with a customary quote). The idea that Fitzgerald literally published this at the height of the very decade he was critiquing - it's just fantastic. All of it. I love this book.

 

5 Fandom Points, Mr. Fitzgerald. (And 11 minutes late too. Shame on me.)

  

~ Aloisa Quintal

 

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And on one fine morning -- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."