Genre: Fiction, Literature, Romance, Classic
Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s finest novel, The Great Gatsby is a consummate summary of the “roaring twenties”, and a devastating expose of the “Jazz Age”.
Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick’s cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him.
People describe this as the “Great American Novel” so naturally I had really high expectations for it, upon reading it I think it is highly overrated.
I just couldn’t get into the story, the narrator was boring and the characters had no depth, they just seemed like characters in a story, nothing more.
I liked the description of the parties and how glamorous they were in that age however that was about it, I didn’t care about the story. Gatsby’s feelings didn’t make sense to me, I understand that he loved Daisy but it just didn’t feel real. Most stories I can easily get into and fully BELIEVE that the characters do exist somewhere out there, however with this I just didn’t care about anything.
I do not understand the hype with it at all, Gatsby was just a fool who was written to be secretive so that we would keep reading to learn more about him but I felt like there wasn’t enough mystery there to keep me interested, I just didn’t care about him. It didn’t make sense that he would throw these parties every single night, surely if he had that amount of money he could employ someone to find Daisy?
Throughout the entire book I was uninterested with everything, my interest was never piqued and so the whole book just seemed like a waste of time. I can understand people being in love with his world and wanting to pretend that they were at the parties however other than that I don’t understand the hype. The story is dreadful and I think it doesn’t quite make it a love story so without this what is the story actually about? Affairs, practically everyone in this book is having an affair, this seems totally acceptable.
It was only toward the end of the book that things got slightly interesting but even then I don’t think it was even remotely close to live up to the hype. Regardless I did like the setting and I do think that Fitzgerald has a way with words however I just don’t think the story was very good at all and definitely cannot live up to the hype surrounding it.
Overall I think the characters were shallow, the story was lame but the writing was pretty good but worthless due to the story, what good is amazing writing when the story itself has nothing to hold your interest at all? I don’t think it is a very good classic and I genuinely cannot understand what people see in this book at all. It was a disappointment for me, I expected so much more.
Rating: 2/5 (1 for the story, an extra star for the writing alone)
Summing up: Adisappointment
The Cosy Nook 