jankp's Full Review: F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby: Easyread S...
Barely here a week I decided to review the quintessential American novel, The Great Gatsby, one of the most read, studied and loved books by an American author, F. Scott Fitzgerald by name. Here is the short review, with mixed ratings given to become helpful over all, followed by my re-write for sleeper54s write-off:
Written December 28, 1999
You've probably studied this book to death in high school or college, but it really is worth rereading it for the pleasure of just reading a good story. This is a romance that's mysterious and poignant. Jay Gatsby lives in the past. He believes he can make the past happen again because he wants it to. Money will make all his dreams come true. Look at what happens to him and his dreams, though. For the few people who haven't read this book, I'll just say we can in this day and age still learn from his lessons....Wish we would.
I love the metaphorical, sensuous style of writing. It is the first romance I ever read and it made a big impact on me. The way the characters became larger than life and you just loved them and wanted things to work out for Gatsby. You have a tragic feeling all throughout because of the way the book's written, but that makes it suspenseful and you want to read more quickly. I daresay you couldn't put it down until finished. Is it an unsatisfying ending? No. I don't need happy endings, but realistic, honest ones that help you understand life a little better. This book with its image of the green light over the flowing water does just that.
There's no sexy scenes here, of course, and that makes it tantalizingly romantic for me. Seeing a man in love caught in despair by fate is terribly romantic. It may be the opposite of today's steamy romances, but I think it's charming and more beautiful this way. We can use a break from modern savvy and escape into the dreamy past once in a while...
Written April 9, 2003
A bit vague, wasnt I? Let me remedy that. 1925s The Great Gatsby unfolds from the lyrical thoughts and compelling, steady-eyed perspective of Nick Caraway, a Midwesterner who moves to West Egg, New York in the bonds business. He seems like a regular joe in need of less complications in his life dragging him down and is looking forward to learning his business. He calls on his cousin Daisy who married a brutish man with old money after waiting for another man to come back for her after W.W. I., who was too late with his new, ill-gotten money.
This other man is Jay Gatsby, Nicks West Egg neighbor whose palatial mansion completely dwarfs Nicks humble abode with an unkempt lawn. Soon our narrator observes the typical Roaring 20s parties at the lit-up mansion and attends one by special invitation so he could meet Gatsby. There he spies Daisys friend Jordan, the rather snobbish professional golfer, becoming more attached to her defensive bluntness as the summer wears on.
But Daisy does not attend to Gatsbys frustration, though everyone else from the celebrated to the pathetic has come and had a grand time. He enlists Jordans and Nicks aid in arranging for him and Daisy to meet at Nicks place for tea, which is what happens, and a shaky start develops fairly quickly into renewed romance (hallowed love on hollow pretenses). Its not that difficult for the flighty and shallow Daisy who knows her husband is fooling around, even getting phone calls from the woman. Poor Nick is coerced by the husband into spending an irritating afternoon at his apartment with his mistress, one of the few times hes become drunk as he contemplates the idle rich.
You could say this is a 1920s clean soap opera (sex only implied once), but the crisp, sparkling writing elevates it to a royal scandal bandied about until suddenly it vanishes into the thin, morbid air of the decadent past. Gatsby, sophisticated, so cool looking, exclaims that the past can be recreated, and it seems that his orgastic dream will finally be grasped when Daisys husband shoots her back down to earth.
What will happen to the romantic dreamer? Will Nick pursue his enjoyable relationship with Jordan and Tom, Daisys husband, with his earthy, married woman, Myrtle, from the garage in the midst of ashes? The answers promise to startle you. At least they did me the first time I read and studied The Great Gatsby in high school. I just finished a third reading and picked up on even more of the nuances that enrich and beautify the novel, such as:
There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams, not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or goodness can challenge what a man can store up in his ghostly heart. Pp 101
Besides the 189 pages there are notes and a preface by Matthew J. Bruccoli in my 75th Anniversary Edition (2000). I learned that after three torturous years of rewriting what started out as a short story, 30-year-old Fitzgerald published it for a dismal reception. Only after he died at 44 thinking himself a failure did The Great Gatsby receive due appreciation until the present. Criticism of the vague time references was intriguing, but I would add that the slang of that period could be confusing and the lines rather constrained or unoriginal to my ears in 2003 (running down like an overwound clock), but it was still a fascinating read with much symbolism (and too few commas) to capture the gorgeous, reckless romance of the time.
The Great Gatsby shall appeal most to lovers of hopeless romance and those seeking to understand the folly of the 20s. The transplanted Western characters should have stayed back West.
Please check out the other participants in sleeper54's write-off at http://www.angelfire.com/jazz/sleeper54/rewrite/writers.html
Thanks, Tom, for hosting this. I've been procrastinating on updating my old reviews.
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