Nick Caraway moved to West Egg and things in his life changed. Not just because of the careless, irresponsible people, but the over-the-top, party-every-night atmosphere of Long Island. He's a working man, and working men like him - without endless family money to fall back on - live in the much less fashionable West Egg, right across the Sound from East Egg, the place for wealthy people who don't have to work. Immediately he is alerted to the differences when his next door neighbor, Jay Gatsby, throws a party to which every person in West Egg and beyond goes to. At the other end of the Sound, on East Egg, Nick meets with a distant cousin, Daisy, her husband, Tom Buchanan, and a friend of their's Jordan Baker. Though Daisy is beautiful and exciting, she's not everything. No one from East Egg, or even West Egg, for that matter, seem to be all they appear, or all they want to be. Including, the mysterious Gatsby.
What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 180
Let me tell you (though you probably don't need much telling) reading a book for class is no simple feat. I love reading. Everyone who's ever read anything I've written should know that. But somehow - and it's always been like this - reading a book for class lacks the usual shimmer of reading for yourself. But this book wasn't that way. I couldn't wait to read it everyday for class and discuss it with my American Lit. teacher. So great. This is one of my all-time favorites. I find myself wondering lately, though, if my love of the author has clouded my judgement as far as how I actually feel about the book. F. Scott Fitzgerald is awesome. But I think I love the book because it's truly a fantastic piece of writing, not just because it was written by Fitzgerald. Love.
What I love most about this book is what I'm going to address first. The writing style. Out of all the aspects of this book the writing style is my favorite. It's slightly poetic with enough description to understand your surroundings and be satisfied without ever being bored. He uses a lot of metaphor to get his point across, which I like. I really don't know what else to say...I've been putting off this review for awhile because, honestly, the hardest reviews to write are the ones you love. It's so much easier to rant about something you hate than describe your love for something. I dunno...I just love a lot of things without explanation. I guess with the Great Gatsby I should really just write about what I didn't like, as opposed to what I did, because it would make everything a lot shorter. Except there really wasn't anything I didn't like. Moving on...I'l just hurry up and get on with it. Now, I don't what to sound like a literary snob, talking about the symbolism of Daisy being names Daisy, or Jordan Baker being names for two car companies which relates to this which symbolizes that. I got all that from my discussions in American Lit. I would never have gotten any of it on my own, despite my love of metaphor. Nope. I take things pretty literally, in general. I found the whole symbolism thing fascinating, but I mostly really love the bare bones of a book like this; the love story. If Fitzgerald really meant for all that symbolism, then he's a true genius and you got to love him for that. If not, he's a romantic and you should love him anyway, because, in conclusion, his writing his spectacular. (That was the most random tangent-filled paragraph I've ever written...)
Yes, I am finally moving on to something else; characters. Nick is the main character and just an all-around loyal narrator. What I liked about his characters was his some times silent observation and simple truthfulness. He was a faithful friend to Gatsby and didn't like to make trouble where it wasn't needed, which was refreshing. He was a relatively straight-forward character; someone easy to like. Gatsby was another great character - though he was certainly more complex than Nick. With a mysterious past and a to-an-extent-unrequited love, he was a character you always rooted for, despite his occasional creepiness and bootlegging. He's a guy with a big heart and a lot of ambition. He's always one step behind everyone else, but so hopeful that the future will be better. Its impossible not to root for him. Daisy was a very...interesting character. At first I really liked her characters, in a weird way, because she was so out there. As my dad would say she's a bit of a space-cadet, like I said, someone who's a little out there. But as Fitzgerald reveals more about her character you really begin to understand who she is and how thoughtless she can be. His character development of her is really great in relation to the book as a whole. At the end he really makes you hate her. Tom Buchanan, on the other hand, is someone you hate consistently, and for good reason. He's a raging racist and a plain old jerk. Such a jerk. But you're really supposed to hate him, so on that front Fitzgerald did a great job again. Tom Buchanan is a truly nasty dude. The last real main character is Jordan Baker, and I really don't have much of an opinion of her. She was just kind of there; I didn't love her and I didn't hate her. She kind of annoyed me at the end but, again, she was supposed to. She was another straight-forward character. She served a purpose to the plot, so she was an important character, but I don't really have all that much to say about her. There were some other minor characters that played important roles in the story but are minor enough they just get some mentioning - Wolfsheim, a man who worked with Gatsby semi-illegally was a true-to-life interesting character. Mr.Wilson and his wife Myrtle were quite the pair. They weren't people so much as symbols for big ideas. All essential and all very unique. Well done.
I'm talk about the plot very briefly. Under all the symbolism and metaphor it really was just a simple love story. So maybe it wasn't the most creative story ever created but, keep in mind, this was written in the 20s - before there was such thing as stupid YA fiction. This is a story of real love - not trashy teen werewolf love. It felt real, which is what made the ending so sad. Its a tragically beautiful story.
Lastly I must talk about the beginning and the end, the title and the cover. Trivial things, perhaps, but I value them. The beginning is just Nick telling his back story with a little foreboding foreshadowing. When I first read that, I wasn't too pleased, because it didn't make me want to read more. I suppose it's needed and all...but it wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. The ending, however, makes up for that fact completely because it is so thoughtfully put together and thought-provoking. A great, great end to the book. The cover is very interesting, but considering the fact that its a classic, the cover doesn't really matter that much - neither does the title. It's reputation proceeds it. I really do like both though. But. In place of where I would outline the details of liking or disliking the cover and title, I have an interesting fact for you. Scott Fitzgerald had a relatively hard time coming up with a title for this, and after thinking of a few he wasn't crazy about he thought up The Great Gatsby, a title he was equally un-enthused about. But he really wanted to publish it so he asked his editor if he could change the title for the second printing of the book, and the editor agreed, thinking it wasn't going to be that popular. Much to their surprise, their book was a huge hit and by that time it was too popular and too well-known to change the title. Fitzgerald was not pleased. I think that's hilarious, though. I love weird facts like that.
Well. That's my review. The book's fantastic and everyone should read it, whether or not you have to for school. It's a classic for a reason; love stories like that are timeless. They never get old, and neither will this book.
Real Teen Rating ~ A+ : Why are you still reading this, go buy this book NOW!
What We Think
Reviewed by Dream Catcher
Number of Pages: 180
Let me tell you (though you probably don't need much telling) reading a book for class is no simple feat. I love reading. Everyone who's ever read anything I've written should know that. But somehow - and it's always been like this - reading a book for class lacks the usual shimmer of reading for yourself. But this book wasn't that way. I couldn't wait to read it everyday for class and discuss it with my American Lit. teacher. So great. This is one of my all-time favorites. I find myself wondering lately, though, if my love of the author has clouded my judgement as far as how I actually feel about the book. F. Scott Fitzgerald is awesome. But I think I love the book because it's truly a fantastic piece of writing, not just because it was written by Fitzgerald. Love.
What I love most about this book is what I'm going to address first. The writing style. Out of all the aspects of this book the writing style is my favorite. It's slightly poetic with enough description to understand your surroundings and be satisfied without ever being bored. He uses a lot of metaphor to get his point across, which I like. I really don't know what else to say...I've been putting off this review for awhile because, honestly, the hardest reviews to write are the ones you love. It's so much easier to rant about something you hate than describe your love for something. I dunno...I just love a lot of things without explanation. I guess with the Great Gatsby I should really just write about what I didn't like, as opposed to what I did, because it would make everything a lot shorter. Except there really wasn't anything I didn't like. Moving on...I'l just hurry up and get on with it. Now, I don't what to sound like a literary snob, talking about the symbolism of Daisy being names Daisy, or Jordan Baker being names for two car companies which relates to this which symbolizes that. I got all that from my discussions in American Lit. I would never have gotten any of it on my own, despite my love of metaphor. Nope. I take things pretty literally, in general. I found the whole symbolism thing fascinating, but I mostly really love the bare bones of a book like this; the love story. If Fitzgerald really meant for all that symbolism, then he's a true genius and you got to love him for that. If not, he's a romantic and you should love him anyway, because, in conclusion, his writing his spectacular. (That was the most random tangent-filled paragraph I've ever written...)
Yes, I am finally moving on to something else; characters. Nick is the main character and just an all-around loyal narrator. What I liked about his characters was his some times silent observation and simple truthfulness. He was a faithful friend to Gatsby and didn't like to make trouble where it wasn't needed, which was refreshing. He was a relatively straight-forward character; someone easy to like. Gatsby was another great character - though he was certainly more complex than Nick. With a mysterious past and a to-an-extent-unrequited love, he was a character you always rooted for, despite his occasional creepiness and bootlegging. He's a guy with a big heart and a lot of ambition. He's always one step behind everyone else, but so hopeful that the future will be better. Its impossible not to root for him. Daisy was a very...interesting character. At first I really liked her characters, in a weird way, because she was so out there. As my dad would say she's a bit of a space-cadet, like I said, someone who's a little out there. But as Fitzgerald reveals more about her character you really begin to understand who she is and how thoughtless she can be. His character development of her is really great in relation to the book as a whole. At the end he really makes you hate her. Tom Buchanan, on the other hand, is someone you hate consistently, and for good reason. He's a raging racist and a plain old jerk. Such a jerk. But you're really supposed to hate him, so on that front Fitzgerald did a great job again. Tom Buchanan is a truly nasty dude. The last real main character is Jordan Baker, and I really don't have much of an opinion of her. She was just kind of there; I didn't love her and I didn't hate her. She kind of annoyed me at the end but, again, she was supposed to. She was another straight-forward character. She served a purpose to the plot, so she was an important character, but I don't really have all that much to say about her. There were some other minor characters that played important roles in the story but are minor enough they just get some mentioning - Wolfsheim, a man who worked with Gatsby semi-illegally was a true-to-life interesting character. Mr.Wilson and his wife Myrtle were quite the pair. They weren't people so much as symbols for big ideas. All essential and all very unique. Well done.
I'm talk about the plot very briefly. Under all the symbolism and metaphor it really was just a simple love story. So maybe it wasn't the most creative story ever created but, keep in mind, this was written in the 20s - before there was such thing as stupid YA fiction. This is a story of real love - not trashy teen werewolf love. It felt real, which is what made the ending so sad. Its a tragically beautiful story.
Lastly I must talk about the beginning and the end, the title and the cover. Trivial things, perhaps, but I value them. The beginning is just Nick telling his back story with a little foreboding foreshadowing. When I first read that, I wasn't too pleased, because it didn't make me want to read more. I suppose it's needed and all...but it wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. The ending, however, makes up for that fact completely because it is so thoughtfully put together and thought-provoking. A great, great end to the book. The cover is very interesting, but considering the fact that its a classic, the cover doesn't really matter that much - neither does the title. It's reputation proceeds it. I really do like both though. But. In place of where I would outline the details of liking or disliking the cover and title, I have an interesting fact for you. Scott Fitzgerald had a relatively hard time coming up with a title for this, and after thinking of a few he wasn't crazy about he thought up The Great Gatsby, a title he was equally un-enthused about. But he really wanted to publish it so he asked his editor if he could change the title for the second printing of the book, and the editor agreed, thinking it wasn't going to be that popular. Much to their surprise, their book was a huge hit and by that time it was too popular and too well-known to change the title. Fitzgerald was not pleased. I think that's hilarious, though. I love weird facts like that.
Well. That's my review. The book's fantastic and everyone should read it, whether or not you have to for school. It's a classic for a reason; love stories like that are timeless. They never get old, and neither will this book.
Real Teen Rating ~ A+ : Why are you still reading this, go buy this book NOW!
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