The Great Gatsby (1925)

Flappertastic. ( )

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I have never read The Great Gatsby before now and somehow managed to not watch either movie about this book. Reading this book and having it end the way that it does, I just want to watch the Leonardo DiCaprio version since the gifs alone has me feel like this version captures the book quite well.

This book takes place during the Jazz Age, just before World War II erupts. Narrated by Nick Carraway, we have him tell the tale of Jay Gatsby and his unending love for Daisy.

Nick's character is there as a reader stand-in. We get to read about his thoughts about some of the people in the book here and there, but often he is merely re-telling a story to us that seems as if he has told it to himself repeatedly over and over again.

What I thought was well done is that we have Nick introduce us to Tom and Daisy Buchanan as well as to their friend Jordan Baker before we meet the mysterious Jay Gatsby. The three of them (Tom, Daisy, and Jordan) seem to be the very best epitome of the Jazz Age. Three people who don't seem to have a care in the world. Who look to their own pleasures first, and people second.

It's not surprising to find that Tom is backwards in his thinking (he goes in on the darker races rising up to crush the whites) and we quickly find out that he is not the husband that Daisy wishes him to be.

Daisy from our first glimpses of him seems shrewd and lost. She apparently knows what Tom is about when he is not with her. And it kills Daisy time and time again that no matter what she does, her husband is out there on one of his little "sprees."

Daisy seems to be everything that is golden and right though readers and Nick quickly get to see how shallow inside and out she is.

When we finally have Nick meet Gatsby you can read his disapproval and fascination of this man throughout the entire book. Eventually you realize that Nick in his own way though pitied Gatsby and wanted to protect him, because Nick saw way before Gatsby that his dream of Daisy and the life they should have had together, was not going to ever come.

When Jay comes upon Daisy the first time, you just feel for him. He is awkward and you know that he wants everything to happen as he has pictured it, probably a million times at that point.

What to do when you find out that everything that Gatsby has become, bought, made, was all for Daisy. The one woman that he feels understands him and has loved him, even though she has been married five years at this point to Tom. I could feel Nick's impatience and also love for Gatsby at times. Gatsby is quite childlike, when talking of Daisy, his belief that she could not have loved Tom ever, that she was forced because of Gatsby's circumstances to marry Tom.

But Gatsby's blindness to Daisy's failings is ultimately his undoing.

And in the end Nick is right, you can't repeat the past.

I thought that the writing was fantastic. From beginning to end. This book flows together so nicely you often wonder how you were able to get from one chapter to another since it feels so seamless.

The setting of New York, with Gatsby's home, Daisy's, home, and all of the other places in the book mentioned feels so real. The dock where the green light from Daisy's home is and where Gatsby looked to frequently for her, felt like a place I could trace with my own steps if one day I wanted to.

The parties, the drinking, the laughing, the music, the people. The way that Fitzgerald writes it, you might as well have been standing alongside Nick while he was a guest too.

What makes a great book to me is that you become so invested in the characters you want a different ending than the one you are provided. And so at the end, I wish for a different ending for Jay Gatsby than the one he got.

As one characters says to Nick in the end, "the poor son of a bitch." ( )

I loved the writing itself. It's clear and melodious, with an engaging rhythm that keeps you moving forward. If the story has a weakness, it's that a big part of the book hangs on a pretty large coincidence. It's also not a great novel if you're looking for an uplifting story of human triumph. But, for in depth characters and an honest look at human frailties, it's top notch. ( )

Hated it so much
might improve on second read
if I can stand to. ( )

This was one of my year twelve books. The first time I read it, I wasn't that excited by it, but I loved it more with each reading. As I said, it was a year twelve book, so there were a lot of re-reads. ( )