The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Publication Date:  April 10, 1925
Publisher:  Scribner
Pages:  192
Series:  Stand Alone
Genre:  Fiction
Synopsis:  This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.




Review:  The "Great American Novel" is quite a title to live up to.  I will concede to The Great Gatsby being a great American novel, if not the greatest.  There is good reason this book in particular has withstood the test of time.  

The Great Gatsby is such a simple yet intricate story that reveals the horrible truths that lie beneath the facade of gold and gilt of society.  And, as potentially every single high school English teacher has insisted upon, it does raise the question of the possibility of the American Dream. 

No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's story is pretentious and undeniably charming.  It's crowning achievement is its ability to capture the time.  It is the 1920's bottled up and made eternal.  The ambiance is adeptly crafted, pulling you into the day and age as easily if it were the Doctor come to whisk you away, and not words.  

Gatsby isn't a typical neighbor, or a typical man with a typical story whatsoever.  He is a desperate boy who clawed his way up the ladder in search of a more fulfilling lifestyle. It was a futile dream to chase, in the end, but chase it he did.  The thing with Gatsby, the caricature that he was, was that he was infatuated with his dream, and the reality of dreams can never live up to the idea of them.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made

I am not certain you ever really know who these capricious humans are.  Rather, you come to acknowledge what they are, or what they represent.  The singular character, the narrator himself, Nick Carraway, may be the only honest man among them all, and even then, it is foolish to think he is innocent, since he is, after all, just as tragically human as the rest.  

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

Is it overrated?  Absolutely.  Does it compare to the ideal we have created of it?  Yes, of course.  Without a doubt, The Great Gatsby is, if not perfect, profound.  It is one of those stories that everyone, at some point in their lives, should read, if only to better understand the fallible world they have fooled themselves into believing in.