by F. Scott Fitzgerald A young man newly rich tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married.
Originally based on the idea that the pursuit of happiness involves not only material success but moral and spiritual growth. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald looks deeply into himself and his milieu to create the story of James Gatz, a self-educated nobody from North Dakota who has amassed a fortune and adopted the persona of Jay Gatsby, an Oxford-educated man about town, for the sole purpose of winning back the heart of Daisy, the woman he loved in his youth. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan--a brutal, ignorant racist who embodies the corruption that can come with unlimited wealth. Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and the narrator, Daisy's cousin Nick Carroway, who serves as the author's spokesman--play out the drama in a small Long Island town (the East Hampton of its day). Fitzgerald makes it increasingly clear that life is meaningless when it is based on money and glamour at the expense of the solid American values of self-reliance and hard work.
I figured since the movie was coming out, and the fact that I actually already owned a copy of the novel, that I should probably finally read it.
My Thoughts - B+
It took me a while to get into this book with its vintage vocabulary and writing style. There was all this build up to finally meet "The Great Gatsby," and when the moment finally came, the mysterious character didn't fail to interest me. After Jay Gatsby came into the picture (about half way in), I couldn't put the ratty paperback book down. I feel very accomplished that I have read one the "Great American Novels," and actually enjoyed it. As far as the content, I can't really say much without giving away the story. It's basically about Jay Gatsby trying to win back his old flame, Daisy, with material extravagancies and fancy parties because that's what she married into. Nick Carroway, Daisy's cousin and Gatsby's neighbor, narrates the story from an outside perspective, watching and describing the determination of Mr. Gatsby's efforts to impress Daisy and win back her love. Eventually, Tom Buchannan, Daisy's controlling and unfaithful husband, hears rumors about Gatsby, and Gatsby's intentions with his wife, and soon he tries to intervene...
I'm excited to watch the movie to see the characters come to life. I plan to watch the old one first with Robert Redford and then the new one with Leo DiCaprio and Tobey McGuire. Hopefully the movies will be just as good as the book.
Quotes
"At least a dozen men, some of them a little better off than he was, explained to him that the wheel and car were no longer joined by a physical bond..." -a crowd explaining to a drunken man why he can't drive his car anymore
"I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." -Nick Carroway
"There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired" -Unknown
"It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart." -Nick, describing Gatsby's determination
"I think that voice held him most, with its fluctuating, feverish warmth, because it couldn't be over-dreamed; that voice was a deathless song" -Nick, describing Gatsby's allure of Daisy
"For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and lips parted like a dead man's, as though there was more struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound, and what I had almost remembered was incommunicable forever." -Nick
"An indefinable expression, at once definitely unfamiliar and vaguely recognizable, as if I had only heard it described in words, crossed Gatsby's face." -Nick
"Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind." -Nick
"There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture, and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together." -Nick, watching Tom and Daisy together
"Well, there I was, away off [with] my ambitions, getting deeper in love every minute, an all of a sudden I didn't care. What was the use of doing great things if I could have a better time telling her what I was going to do?" -Gatsby, describing his longing for Daisy
"It eluded us then, but that's no matter now--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther, and one fine morning... So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." -Nick