A review by caribbeangirlreading
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

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

2.0

2023:  Re-read this book for my Classics Book Club. As always, we had a spirited discussion as to the themes of the book. However, I still did not enjoy reading it and I still hate all the characters - Gatsby is a con-man. Daisy is NOT a victim. Tom is still a horrible human being. Gatsby and Daisy's relationship is toxic AF. Daisy and Tom deserve each other and all their unhappiness. And Nick . . . This time around I really noticed something that I had forgotten from my first read, that Nick is our narrator, and he's a very unreliable one. He "thinks" he's above the superficial and vapid lifestyle of the rich and famous of East/West Egg, but he's in fact just like them. He just doesn't have the money.

2013:  Intellectually, I can see why this book has remained a classic.  It is a scathing social commentary on life in the 1920s, and maybe even specifically of upper class society in the northeast US.  But emotionally, I despised Gatsby, and Tom, and Daisy, and Jordan and many of the other secondary characters so much that reading this book was more torture than pleasure.  I had to force myself to finish this book (over 2.5 weeks!) just so I could say I have read it.  And then F. Scott Fitzgerald's book will join the ranks of the classic American novels that I despise, i.e., every book ever written by his friend and contemporary, Ernest Hemingway.
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