Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - The Great Gatsby

I feel like for the most part this book speaks for itself. It's the great American novel about broken dreams and even more fragmented marriages. It, much like it's titular character transcends the bounds of simple notoriety into the halls of legend, which I think is both hilarious and apt.

I really enjoyed the setting and the character dynamics. Nick absorbs absurd conversations like a sponge and it can be quite hilarious to hear him explain ridiculous situations completely seriously. I think Daisy is so interesting and I'm a little disappointed we didn't get more of her. The prose is generally metaphorical and interesting, yet pretty accessible which I enjoyed a lot. Though there are a lot of cultural subtleties hidden in it that are understood far better when you have a better understanding of the 1920s as a whole.

I honestly didn't love the last few chapters. I think thematically it's extremely interesting how they almost mirror their own characters. Grandiose images and buildups that mostly fall flat do to how hollow they truly were. But I think it could have been done better. The book sticks so strongly to Nick as a narrator, which is not inherently a bad thing, but I feel like stretching him more could have made a more interesting climax.

Overall a very enjoyable read, there is a lot of extremely interesting imagery and metaphor throughout this book, and I'm pretty sure that is why it's held the test of time so long. Desire, wealth, and decent into madness are always going to be topics we want to dig our teeth into.

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bookiemadi's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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meganpbennett's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I remember reading The Great Gatsby in high school; I was not impressed. I didn't know much about the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, organized crime, or the First World War to understand a lot of what was going on. There's a lot of subtext to the story, and the pop culture knowledge that readers would have had when the book came out is very different than what current readers have.

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iinasomnia's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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meursault_letranger's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Good book. There's a reason they teach it as "intro to symbolism" in high school.

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eagleshouse's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Perhaps my opinion of this classic is sullied by the fact that it is the first classic I have read in years - however, that doesn't make me hesitate in saying how disappointed I was in Fitzgerald's magnum opus.

I have heard nothing but praise for this book, and having no information except for this, I was excited to finally give it a go. However, whilst the prose is decent, the storyline and characters leaves much to be desired.

I found it difficult to empathise with any characters except the protagonist, Nick Carraway. They weren't even a type of character where it is fun to dislike them; they just seemed boring and uninteresting, even Gatsby himself.

The story as well left much to be desired. Oftentimes I felt as though there was no story at all, but rather that the book was just a collection of regular days for the boring elite of the American 1920s. It wasn't until the very last chapter where I felt as though there was a story worthy of being considered a classic - I could've very easily skipped all the way to the penultimate chapter and still experienced the storyline. However, even during these final chapters did I struggle. It might be due to the fact that I have not read a dated novel in quite some time, but I hadn't even realised Gatsby had died until Carraway states it directly on the phone, and I had to reread the entire chapter trying to figure out how and when he had died. The way Fitzgerald had written it, I had thought it had been the other way around and that Wilson had been shot by Gatsby.

In summary, I think that as far as classics go, this is one of the most confusing and lackluster ones I have read. I might try and reread it soon to try and understand the hype behind it, but overall I feel as though there are many other classical novels that deserve much more appreciation than this one.

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jessiiiru's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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mengzhenreads's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Classic that is very clearly a classic. This definitely took a while to sink into but by the end of it I felt quite fulfilled by this book. Honestly not my favorite, but I can see why it's had such an impact on the literary world.

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