The Great Gatsby

I haven't read the book yet. I had to buy it for school. I had no problems with delivery or the physical book itself.

Nick Carroway lives in West Egg, Long Island. He is a bond trader. One day quite out of the blue, Nick is invited to his neighbor's house for a party. Nick's neighbor is Jay Gatsby, long known in this part of Long Island for throwing the most opulent parties in the area. At this particular party, he meets Jordan Baker, a golf pro, who is quite drunk at this party, and has taken an interest in Nick. At long last, Nick finally meets Gatsby, they trade some small talk about WW I and soon the party is over.But there are many parties to follow, and Nick and Gatsby become fast friends, although Nick is never sure of the origins of Gatsby's wealth, or education, or background. Gatsby's intentions become clear enough soon enough. He wants Nick to have a party for Daisy Buchanan, Nick's cousin, so that Gatsby can re-introduce himself to Daisy. Daisy and Gatsby had known each other five years earlier, and Daisy didn't marry him then, because he was poor. Five years later, Daisy is married to Tom, a big, hulking (Tom hated that description of himself) brooding former football player. Complicating matters further, Tom is having an affair with Myrtle Wilson, wife of a local dim witted auto shop owner.Undeterred by the fact that the love of his life is now married, Gatsby tries to rekindle his love with Daisy, and after an awkward first meeting, Daisy is professing her love for Gatsby for all to hear, including her husband Tom. Still the five of them, Nick, Jordan, Gatsby, Daisy and Tom strike up a clumsy acquaintance, and take a drive to New York City together. Upon returning from that trip, something happens that changes their lives forever. What is it? Do Gatsby and Daisy ever get to rekindle their romance? Does Nick find out more about the shadowy Gatsby?I first read this book 30 years ago. I read it with all the enthusiasm of a teenager wanting to pass an English Lit class, which is to say not very much enthusiasm at all. Luckily, for myself, I decided to give this book another try. I read this book in 4 days, not only that, every time I left it, I wanted to read more of it. The book inhabited me, like few have. The descriptions of West Egg are lyrical, almost poetic. The parties Gatsby threw are like some dream out of the Gilded Age, andI wanted to be at those parties.Moreover, there are important themes discussed in these pages. The theme of love lost is one of the central themes that Fitzgerald brings to the forefront. Can a love that is lost ever be re-kindled, and if so, is it ever as good as it was the first time? There is an answer that Fitzgerald provides, but I won't divulge it, that is part of the pleasure of reading this book.The theme of friendship is also examined in this book. Nick is probably Gatsby's closest friend at the end of the book, but how well did he really know Gatsby? Was it a friendship based on mutual admiration, or was Nick more interested in being seen at a Gatsby party, than finding out about Gatsby? Did Nick feel used by Gatsby, so that Gatsby could meet Daisy? Was Gatsby using Nick to meet Daisy, and not for any other purpose? There were passages in this book that made me wonder if Nick even liked Gatsby. That brings up a further question of who Gatsby's friends really were. Did he have any true friends or were they all hangers-on and sycophants? Fitzgerald provides an answer to that question quite emphatically at the end of the book, but again I will not give it away.I cannot leave this book without some deserving criticism however. The character of Mayer Wolfsheim is a horribly negative Jewish stereotype, and I must say, I was repulsed when I read this character, because it was such a horribly negative portrayal of a Jew, the physical description seemed to concentrate on his large nose, his other attributes seemed to be that he was a gambler, somehow involved in the Black Sox scandal, of fixing the World Series. The image of Wolfsheim mars an otherwise wonderful book. I don't know why Fitzgerald would include it, other than to maybe reflect the anti-Semitism of the age.The Great Gatsby: A great if somwhat flawed book.For more book and movie reviews, please visit my blog, Reviewswithatude.[...]

Prior to starting this novel, I was convinced I had read it some time in school while I was growing up. Throughout my public school education, we had read a variety of classics from Steinbeck, Dickens, Hemingway, Miller, etc. So I really thought I had read this one along the way. After a couple of paragraphs, I realized that I hadn't, because I think I would have remembered the different feel this one seems to have from most classic American literature.The length of the novel alone is enough to show you that it's not quite the same as some of those other novels. Fitzgerald seemed to have more of a sense of what to cut out and what to include than some of his contemporaries, because at no point during this reading did I sit and think "Will you just get ON with it?!?" I'm sad to say that I have done that with plenty of other authors, so I was a bit worried I'd have that reaction when going through The Great Gatsby. I very happily enjoyed this novel and hope to read more of Fitzgerald's work in the future.The book itself is the tragic tale of our title character, Jay Gatsby. Having never been satisfied with the life he came from, Gatsby invents a new self and goes about trying to find the person he wants to be. Along the way, he meets Daisy, who becomes the big driving force in his life. I think in today's day and age, we might call Gatsby a stalker - he's obsessive and goes so far as to buy his house in Long Island because of his ability to see Daisy's across the way. While this would seem creepy if we were telling it from a modern perspective, it strikes me as being rather sad. Gatsby goes from only knowing he wants to make money, to knowing he wants to make money for Daisy. At one point during the story, he even says that he decided doing things was less important than telling Daisy about all the things he wanted to do. It's really a sad case of lost boy syndrome, in my book.Something that really stuck out to me throughout the book was that people seemed to want to be around Gatsby, but no one necessarily seems to like him, going so far as to spread random rumors about how he acquired his fortune and what his past was like. This theme carries through to the end when we learn that our narrator, Nick Carraway, is the only one who is truly there for Gatsby in his time of need. While Gatsby isn't a model citizen, he doesn't seem all that scandalous to me, and certainly doesn't deserve the rumor mongering that follows him throughout the course of the novel. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm looking at it from a modern perspective, so his actions don't seem any worse than things we see on TV on a daily basis.I picked this book up for Banned Books Week, and found it rather amusing when I was investigating the reasoning behind the banning of this book. It was basically for language and some mild sexual content, which is just ridiculous. I certainly didn't see any bad language when reading it, and the only references to sex were along the lines of "so and so left the room for awhile". Again, maybe it's a more modern perspective, but those things are just silly. I'm totally against the banning of books anyway, so I guess I've got a skewed perspective twice over.The only questionable thing for me is really the behavior of Daisy's husband, Tom Buchanan. I found Tom to be annoying, as arrogant as he is described, and a bigot to top it off. It's made worse by the knowledge that men like Tom did exist, and to an extent they still do. Still, that's no reason to ban a book, it's just a reason to dislike Tom and root for Gatsby.I really would be curious to see what kind of things Fitzgerald would have come up with if he lived in our time. It's a shame we lost him all too soon, because I think he has a unique voice and I would have liked to see more from him.

Davvero un bel libro, spedito in maniera impeccabile. Neanche una piega!

Per tutti in originali, This so-called 'American novel' is eccellent reading material, so clearly written that you really don't need the film version, infact forget the film and read the book!

Ha le dimensioni di un quaderno, ma chi vende i libri così? Sembra il catalogo dell'ikea

tra una parola e l'altra c'è una spazio di 2 centimetri. Illeggibile.

This is considered to be one of the best fiction novels and no doubt it is a great novel. After I watched the movie, I just had to read it and oh boy!, what a beautifully written book. The book definitely arose more emotions than the movie. Gatsby is about the emptiness that is profound in the lifestyle of the society where values are completely distanced from the opulence. The more you read this book, the more you would fall into it.This is a tragic love story. The feelings are intense and at times you would feel so much for Gatsby. There are things you can't buy with money and that is what is shown profusely in the novel. This is a very simple story but a very very complicated one at the same time. There is a lot of symbolism that one may want to understand a bit in detail. So do a bit of research on those scenarios that the author is building. This one is a classic and will always be with me. I will always revisit this story.Gatsby is a great character that Fitzgerald has developed and many people will relate with him. Daisy is the demure girl that many people would feel so much for. This book rouses emotions and feelings to a different level.