An American tragedy from the Jazz Age

books:

	• The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald Scribner, 1999 - 180 pages average customer review:based on 1130 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Consciously Artistic Achievement

At only 182 pages in the paperback edition, The Great Gatsby looms far larger in the life of American fiction than its slim dimensions. Unlike many novels with a great deal of hype latched to them, Gatsby lives up to its reputation in every blessed way. Perhaps part of the staying power and widespread appeal of this work is that it and its author were nearly forgotten. This powerful work was hardly read for more than 25 years, and now it is widely assumed to be one of the greatest works of American fiction in the 20th century. It earned its kingdom through dark years. From amnesia to aggrandizement shows that behind the swirl of its reputation is a powerfully complete artistic vision. Like all great work, Gatsby can be read on many levels: as a critique of the shifting American psyche, as a critique of the pitfalls of capitalism, as a time capsule of the roaring 20's... each reading brings new surprises. Perhaps the most refreshing reading is the uniqueness of the language. Fitzgerald here created prose masterpiece. Every sentence is finely wrought and cleverly designed, like jewels in an exquisite setting. He created, as he stated, a consciously artistic achievement.

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Hmm...

So I love classic English literature, but F. Scott, and the Great Gatsby in particular are not my favorite. My wife loves them, but I can go without them. To me, it never really makes me relate or care about the characters, and if you cannot care on some level about the characters, what is the point of reading a book, you know??

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Fantastic! One of my Favorite Books!

Aside from making a powerful statement about the so called "American Dream," this novel is brilliantly written. Mr. Fitzgerald's mastery of the English language is evident in his genius sentence structure and meticulous word choice. One cannot help but stop reading to simply marvel at some of his phrasing. I highly recommend Gatsby to anyone out for great read.

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Does money matter?

"Pursuit of happiness"? More like the pursuit of money leading into happiness. The novel starts off with a dull beginning but soon develops into what is known as one of the greatest written novels during the First World War. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the theme of importance of social class along with money status to show that Mr. Jay Gatsby is a symbol for the average American during the 1920s. The story is narrated by Nick Carraway who is a young lad living in West Egg, Long Island. Next to him lives the infamous Jay Gatsby who falls in love with a taken woman. Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had met five years earlier and had fallen in love but unfortunately Jay left and was not able to contact Daisy for some time. After waiting for five long years Daisy decides to marry Tom who is one of Nick's friends from college. Sooner or later Gatsby and Daisy meet up again at Nick's house and fall in love all over again. Nick ends up being caught in a love tangle when he finds out that not only are Daisy and Gatsby having an affair but also that Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. In the end three people end up dead due to the entanglement, but it is made clear that Daisy's choice to stay with Tom is solely based upon the recently found news that Gatsby was actually a poor man who inherited money. This then ties in the theme of "money does matter" and the downfall of the American society due to a shortage of money in the 1920s seen on pages 40-41. I recommend this book to those who are interested in reading twisted romance novels with a little rising action thrown in.

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An American tragedy from the Jazz Age

This story of the 'lost generation', those who came of age in time to fight in WWI and, if they were lucky, returned home to find that everything had changed, especially themselves. This generation was no longer content to stay in the small towns and cities that their families had lived in for generations. The young men did not want to enter into the family business and settle down with a suitable young woman from nearby. The young women were not content to stay in their parents' house and wait, they wanted out in the world to 'do something'.

The story is told, not through the eyes of Gatsby but through those of Nick, a young man from the midwest who has settled in New York to learn the bond game. By chance he has rented a house on Long Island for the summer, a small cottage stuck among much grander mansions and, again by chance, across an inlet from a cousin, Daisy and her husband Tom, who, also by chance Nick had known slightly in college. Also by chance, Nick's neighbor, the mysterious Gatsby had been one of Daisy's many suitors before she had settled down with Tom. Nick soon finds himself swept into the glittering, glamorous world of Gatsby and Daisy and Tom. He is made an unwilling witness to Tom's infidelity, the one sided romance of Gatsby and Daisy and finally to the tragic results of it all.

THE GREAT GATSBY is a very American story, one that depicts the American restlessness, the desire to be more, better, different from all that has come before. As with many books that are assigned reading this one is often forced on an audience that is too young to appreciate it. Like many others I hated this novel when I first read it (I was an 18 year old college freshman) but found that it stuck with me, unlike many other assigned books, long after the final exam. Over the years I have read it several times and each time discovered something new, a different aspect of the novel becoming the 'point' of the story.

This is one everyone really should read at least once, perferably a couple times, in their lives.

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