Forum Book-Discussion The Great Gatsby

What makes the great books great? This forum is meant to explore that question. So what is it that makes this book great?

The Great Gatsby

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Product Description
In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem.



Next Week's Book- To Kill a Mockingbird

One of the finest books ever written, that is all i could possibly say about it.

Did not care for it. Don't get me wrong, I have great respect for Fitzgerald's prose (enough to read it a second time) but it just never managed to capture my attention. I think I had trouble relating to the characters. Rich people with problems. Boo-hoo. I know I'm understating things here but the characters just didn't do anything for me.

I ate this book up. I loved it, but I can see where others may not enjoy it. The different types of human interaction - human nature - appealed to me. However, I could see where the public at large would find it boring.

First off, two replys back may be the worst reading of the novel ever. That's setting a pretty confrontational tone for this post, but I just had to say that.

I've read this 5 times, reading it a 6th right now. This novel is not about 'rich' people and their problems. It is about the era of America that pretty much defines the nation. America is a country of 'rich' people. Yes there are poor, there are those that have nothing, but in a comparison to countries across the world, even our 'lower class' are rich (how many times have you seen a dude on welfare still sporting a cellphone?)

This is a story of desires, the pursuit of what we believe will make us complete. This is Fitzgerald at his most critical, and yet still most sympathetic. In earlier novels, his youthful cynicism was augmented by a belief that he had life figured out, as is so common with youth; his later work was simply cynical, beat down and broken. Gatsby was Fitzgerald, on the cusp of success, no longer young, but not quite old and weary.

Gatsby is a perfect allegory for America now (though I don't believe that was Fitzgerald's intention). He is rich and his opulence comes from not-so-honest means. But people mystify him. Some make him out to be a legend, others a villian, but all the same they take what they can from him. In the end, Gatsby was a bit of a villian, but only because in pursuit of his dream, an idealistic dream, he lost sight of any moral grounds.

Nick Carraway is probably the best narrator in all of modern literature (more so than Holden Caulfield, even). There is humor in his narration (often sly), pathos and general concern.

Fitzgerald's greatest gift, other than his beautiful and heartbreaking use of language, was his ability to write completely real people. The Great Gatsby doesn't delve as deeply into the psychological reasonings of his characters as much as the Beautiful and Damned or Tender is the Night, but nonetheless, every action, every word is completely in character.

I read the book and I feel every moment, recognize every emotion. And when I put it down, I feel as world-weary as Gatsby. Absolutely beautiful, none better.

[QUOTE=Sean Aremen]Rich people with problems. Boo-hoo. I know I'm understating things here but the characters just didn't do anything for me.[/QUOTE]
At least it's not the O.C.

I think the whole rich people thing is different here in the 20's. It's much more uncomfortable and tragic somehow. It doesn't end up feeling like a soap opera.

Anyways, this is a wonderful book. Fitzgerald is one of the greatest American prose artists. [i]Tender is the Night[/i] has some of the best writing I've ever encountered. This book is a little easier to read, fortunately. What I love so much about this book is the odd pacing. It feels like it should be a surrealist novel about rich people, but never sinks into that. I also think that Owl Eyes is one of the most enigmatic and intriguing characters from anything I've read (along with the little old man from Salinger's [i]Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenter[/i]).

The Great Gatsby is manages to do what - I feel - few other works of literature manage to do. Simply put, Fitzgerald leads you through his world not merely as the writer or narrator of the tale but he leads you through it by hand. I think that Fitzgerald was one of the few people that was able to imagine and understand the singular greatness of his own time - coming from the rigidity of the Victorians, only to be ruined by the Great Depression - and I think he captures that in the strange blend of fragility and strength that each character represents.

this book makes me proud to be an American...I wish I lived in the 20's

It is one of the finest books ever written. It inspired me to work more woth my writing and helped my to find my own style. Made me focus on detail without overwheling you with them. And above all it was the greatest cmpliment I could ever recieve whn my College lit professior told me my work reminded him of F Scott Fitzgerald.[color=blue][/color] ::biggrin::

[QUOTE=SebastianFort]only to be ruined by the Great Depression - and I think he captures that in the strange blend of fragility and strength that each character represents.[/QUOTE]
Not to be an a*s, but the Great Depression came four years after the publication of Gatsby. Unless you didn't mean Gatsby specifically, but Fitzgerald in general, or his later works in general.

I could not have said it better.

The Great Gatsby ... IS a literally treasure for ALL times.

Gatsby was a tragic hero for he exemplified what it is to be a true American and the consequences and riches that befall such a prominent figure. He exemplifies the spiteful jealousy of those who have versus those who have not ... the bitter backstabbing and the few ... oh so few who stay pure and true ... the ones that we most often are quick to judge for THEY are the ones living outloud ... in our faces because they are not afraid to live their lives.

This book is by far one of the most sardonically epic love stories as well for Gatsby's spent the greater part of his life chasing after an idealization rather than reality ... again, leading back to the epitome of what the American "dream" is - to reach for the stars ... but this book teaches us that dreaming is beautiful, tragic, innocent and maddening ... and that, instead, by having our feet more firmly planted in reality we might not all have to be extreme versions of a Gatsby, but can still hold true to the innocence of his heart.

This Side of Paradise though is by far my favorite book by Fitzgerald. If he were alive right now ... I'd marry the man!!!*

*Best Wishes* to all you *beautiful* aspiring & published writers.

Sincerely,

~aka* Joie*

i confess, by the end of the book i was exasperated with every character except for nick. but it's a good study of human nature and image and values and life in general.

but what truly sold it for me-- and what will make me read more of fitzgerald's work no matter how much they seem like a soap opera-- is his writing style. these aren't simply words, it's language. his description is verbal art. it's amazing and beautiful and poetic and my puny description of it doesn't do it justice. i was blown away.

I have to respectfully disagree with you, mortaleye. [u]Gatsby [/u]is all about class; look at how the lower class people behave in comparison to the rich in the book. Fitzgeralds sympathies clearly lie with the poor.

When I joined up here I put Gatsby as one of my fav books but had to take it out because of Sierra Madre and the rest but Gatsby reminds me of Great Expectations one of my fav movies with Gwyneth Paltrow - I relate to Gatsby in the highest degree and you know what in the end half the time the b***h doesnt deserve you - and the other half you put her on a pedastol she did not deserve in the first place - I last read the book in 2005 - first read the book probably in 1989 - I'm glad people like him wrote books like that so overly romanticized guy's like me can get some perspective.

To me, it was something new. At the time when I read it, I was between reading fantasy and Jennifer Weiner, so going from the other-wordly and the overweight women with problems to the wealty lifestyle was something I hadn't read before. It was interesting to read, from Nick's point of view, the way that upper class society existed in the earlier 1900's, and the way they went about accepted someone new.

Now that I've said that, I can't say the book is one of my favorites. It was an interesting read, and I really liked the main character (and even Gatsby, at times) but I otherwise didn't like it. Maybe because the characters were so far above me in social class that trying to understand them was a chore. My friend and I were constantly making fun of the book, which is probably why I have fond memories of it.

Distaste aside, I can admit that it was a good book. Not my cup of tea, but well-written and insightful. At least, in my opinion it was.

the green light... oh that beautiful and promising green light...

I just finished this book a couple weeks ago, and I'm still in awe. Fitzgerald's prose is fantastic. My favorite part, by far, is his description of the green light and what it meant to Gatsby. "His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one." I love that line. Wish I'd written it.

I can see how some people might find the story uninteresting. As a good friend of mine once said, nothing at all happens. Then suddenly, this bizarre chain of events rocks the characters' little world. For me, however, the right words can make a simple plot something extraordinary. And Fitzgerald had the right words.