F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby BOOK REVIEW
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
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I've always seen the book as a study of longing. Gatsby wants the past to return - but it's gone, and it ain't coming back, no matter how hard he tries.
This.
That's what I saw too.
God is Dead m8. Only nature is real.
ruclips.net/video/Kzz8c1He9fY/видео.html
Exactly, but also a warning against idealization. You can more clearly see it the moment (it looks like) Gatsby finally got Daisy back, at the same time as the green light from her house can't be seen.
When you idealize something, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
I think reading this book when younger is a tragic disservice to the novel. It should be read when you've lived a life and can look back on a time and place with certain people and would give anything to get that back; when you had everything still in front of you; of looking back on that in denial of what is irretrievable, that you can still recapture it, even to the point of believing that you love someone, whom you don't actually love, because of how they made you feel. It's a book about hopeless reflection and aching nostalgia
I like your comment about the characters feeling hollow, and that's part of why I love the book. I recently read it for the fourth time and that stood out, because it seems like the "loves" in this book are incredibly hollow and materialistic. When Gatsby says that Daisy's voice sounds like money, that's when you realize it's all about wealth and status. Everyone's life is totally consumed by wealth and status, and everything else is just a means to that end. The greed ends up being lethal in the end and the boring lives are cut short by the excess that got them there.
I agree. When I read it I hated practically everyone in the novel. Everyone was so fake, but I agree with you about that being the point. Daisy and Gatsby were never really about love. I remember that description you mention about Daisy’s voice and it says so much. I think I enjoyed Jordan best as a character and Nick second. But Nick was so opinion-less, and at first I thought that he was just not a judgmental person and liked that about him. But now thinking about it (I’ve only read this book once and that was many years ago) Nick really is just a lense to see the story. He’s nothing. He’s no one. He’s bland, unrealistic and has no personality. It’s interesting to think about in hindsight. 🤔
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Nick became more interesting for me on the second read when I took into account that his pov is not entirely reliable (to put it mildly). I noticed that he presents himself as a moral person; someone who is distant from the events and people around him. He brushes over an affair he has in the space of a paragraph, always presents himself as being someone events happened to (rather than, say, someone who chose to hang around with Gatsby's set because of the social-climbing opportunities it afforded him). His personality comes through his storytelling; how it glides over or omits certain details, and how it frames every situation to make him have zero culpability (when in reality we know that can't be the case).
I have not read the book, but after watching the move, I was completely turned off from reading it. IK the book is usually better, but the plot is pretty much the same. I forgot what movie I saw this from, but a black female character was telling her teacher "Why did they make the Great Gatsby a classic? If you wanted to show us the culture of the past, why not read books from minorities and what they had to suffer but instead have to analyze the snobby rich white people's lives instead?" and it was not exactly those words, but the meaning was the same and it is a bit ironic maybe, but those lines she said had a huge impact on my desire to want to read the book either way
@@sin3358 I didn't get it the first time, too. I saw 2013 movie and reread the book. Nothing.
And then during the 70s movie, it clicked.
Wilson can't read!! That's the reason he why he things the add is 'sign' of god.
And mabye the accident wasn't a accident, just Daisy who took a chance of getting rid of myrtle.
And now I'm totally fascinated by the art of how fitzgerald wrote. I thing we all senced the hollowness of the people/characters, but how did he show it to us?
And at only on commentar I found the therory that gatsby was white passing. And because of the one drop rule was very famouse at this time, it would make so mich sense, when he flipped against Toms racial rant.
And my absolut personal theroy is that his 'mentor wasn't a mentor, he was his lover or how do you call the opposite of an gold digger.
I like the way Fitzgerald casually describes the absurdity of wealth.
One of the key components of the novel, at least in my opinion, is the attempt by Nick Carroway in the narration to relieve himself of any kind of culpability. Once you notice the entire novel is an affectation, a perfectly sculpted front to hide the real, judgmental, selfish person underneath the good old boy innocent affect, the whole thing comes alive. And you only get to find it by putting every sentence under scrutiny.
I noticed that towards the end. Nick’s attempt to divorce himself from the events and the characters. At the end it felt like all of a sudden he was above it all, the other characters, New York all of it. As if he wasn’t as much a part of this world as everyone else. I like how Jordan kind of calls him out on it as well
It feels so validating hearing this critique from you. I read the book few years back. I was bored, and the excesses of wealth and opulence and overall bad behaviour just turned me off completely. I could appreciate the penmanship, I remember stopping quite a few times to appreciate the writing- this guy could write, but oh so boring.
I agree it was so fucking boring. It was like pulling teeth getting through that book
Boring? I remember it was one of the only books my adhd addled brain enjoyed in high school and I enjoy it more now.
@@sunkintree Nope, not at school. Just bored.
It’s a masterpiece.
@@crypticsg8748 is it though? It was pretty mid imo
Edit: honestly for me it was even less than mid. I'm just searching about this book because I hear references about it often but I don't understand who actually enjoyed the book cuz it was boring af
I think an important aspect to the novel is that it’s fundamentally an American fairy-tale. The characters do not function so much as unique individuals but as symbolic of different facets of American culture. Carroway is the boring middle class man drawn to wealth, but distant from it culturally, Tom is symbolic of the arrogant and sneering old wealth, whereas Gatsby, the rugged individualist born in poverty, part debonair socialite, part outlaw is the American dream herself
I loved this novel. I too read late in life and it reignited a passion for literature I thought I had lost.
What is the ideal age to read it in your opinion?
@@immasavagebro2845 I can't really opine on that. All I can say is that I came to this novel in my mid-30s. Perhaps reading this in the aftermath of a financial crisis and Brexit coloured my opinion. Although I have a predisposition to viewing modern-day capitalism as a perversion of human society.
It's an amazing book - pretty much perfection, imho.
I liked the Owl-Eyes character the most. He’s just like ourselves looking at books, curious about this Gatsby-fella’s life and he is one of the few at Gatsby’s funeral feeling pity for this man who had a full life but didn’t find what he truly looked for.
I didn't like it on my first read when i was 19, but it stuck with me, i re-read it and now i read it every year at the very least once.
Autosadist
the great gatsby is my favorite book of all time and I fall in love with it every time I read it... I own many earlier copies of the manuscript and read many literary discussions around it, including "So We Read On" by Maureen Corrigan.
The story seemed to me to be about the loss of meaning in life, and the failure of materialism in filling the void.
The people of 1920's America were never able to find meaning in their vast wealth, pleasures, and parties. No matter how many drinks were drunk, parties thrown, or money spent, that longing for something more never goes away.
Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy is Gatsby's search for something more. But Gatsby's mistake is that he's built up this idealized version of Daisy that is not at all representative of who Daisy really is. He's doomed himself to disappointment.
Gatsby also gets caught in a infinite loop of trying to fulfill his immaterial desires by indulging in over-the-top displays of materialism in order to get Daisy's attention.
Gatsby's tragedy is that he knows what he wants, but he's doomed to never get it, no matter how hard he tries. Gatsby's desires only prove useful in bringing about his demise.
The Great Gatsby is up there as one of my favourite books and a book I always mean to re-read every year. I have to admit that my reason for loving it so much is dependent on when I read it. I was a teenager when I first read Gatsby and I was immediately touched by one of the harsh truths revealed by Nick - that the life we desire and the people we desire to be around are not always as appealing as they appear from a distance. Gatsbys lust for Daisy and desire to live a certain life and be a certain kind of man even in the face of the obvious degeneracy and rot of the people he wanted to be was so interesting and it made me rethink my own goals in life.
The American dream and historical and social commentary was not as important to me as I’m not American and the concept of the American Dream has always seemed bizarre to me ( because it’s so utterly unrealistic)
wrong. actually the american dream is utterly realistic and true, if not always to gatsby levels. just nyc cuny colleges institution itself has lifted more people out of poverty into professional careers and therefore transferred more wealth than anything in history.
I feel like the characters are meant to be caricatures of the tropes or qualities we often glorify in our perception of the American Dream. The immediate dislike upon the first read is something I associate with feelings of the uncanny or the way we attempt to disprove Freudian thinking: Neutral disagreement is one thing, but to vehemently or passionately oppose an idea only serves to reinforce it through the idea of repression (i.e., that we recognize something almost human, almost US, in this thing that we cannot help but to turn that discomfort into contempt or even disgust).
When you get rid of all the commentary, significance, baggage, history, and money that's been made on account of The Great Gatsby, and just look at it for what it is, it's quite remarkable. I wonder if it is possible though to step back and look at it on its own terms?
At this point I think it's quite hard. i'd say that The Great Gatsby is one of those books that became such a *staple of pop culture that it became somewhat bigger than itself
@@walmorcarvalho2512 That's a great way to put it, that it's become bigger than itself. I agree
I've actually never watched the movie, and only recently found out that it's a classic. If anything, it's probably the perfect time for me to read it.
The best written piece in this book, for me, is what he says about Wilson: “ he was his wife’s man, but not his own.”
also “Maybe you got some friend that I could telephone for, George?”
This was a forlorn hope - he was almost sure that Wilson had no friend: there was not enough of him for his wife."
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” .... timeless ... ever so relevant hundred later and will be in another hundred years
That is the only part of the book I liked. I could have read the first page and left it at that
@@Huntonaldinho and the last line
What I like best about Fitzgerald's writing is his use of sensory details, especially color. He describes the visual details of his settings like he's illustrating a picture so the reader can vividly see everything play out in the mind's eye. After reading "Gatsby" and a collection of his short stories, I get the impression that if he didn't become a writer, he would have been a painter.
I didn't read GG in high school. A college professor once commented that it's a book that you should read when you've had your heartbroken, like after your first serious relationship. Gatsby's yearning and everything he did to bring back an ideal he couldn't see was merely an illusion really stayed with me. There was a purity and innocence in the delusion. It's very much like Don Quijote in its mix of idealism and futility. It resonated with me. Guess I'm of that disposition. I've read it every year since the first time. "Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can."
I'm angry at myself that I only found this channel this month. Thank you for the best reviews out there man! Love from the Philippines.
I love when people talk about what they don’t like and ask why, and simply just don’t leave it there. Life goes round.
I think you’re right in catching this book at the right time in your life. I read it in highschool and it was the first book that I could discuss in depth with my class mates. I’m 25 now and don’t care to read it again
I really loved the Great Gatsby but I can see why some people mightn't enjoy it. What interested me the most was the idea that one's past defines the boundaries of their future, like every character's fate is pre-ordained by their birth and nobody really has any true agency.
The past influences the future... no kidding.
I am an 11th grade teacher. We read this book every year. I love the language, the writing, and the melodrama ... it seems to resonate with students of that age and can still shock them and feel romantic somehow. I think the third time I read it was my favorite. :)
Do they still make kids read Ethan Frome?
I really don’t remember which grade it was, definitely much earlier than Junior in high school, but it’s always stick with me as torture. 😄
Salute to your teaching!
I read Gatsby when I was still in college. I was thrilled with it then and still like it now.
A good way to look at Gatsby as a first try by a novelist who had finally found himself. With more concentration and less alcohol, Fitzgerald may have been another Henry James.
Recently subscribed and let me just say, this channel makes me excited to read more books. I love the fluid yet substantive way you review
I think the clear affectation of the narration feeds into Nick's character, and it's one of the things I love about the book.
The way he tells it, Nick is just this passive observer to everything that happens. He never objects, and he goes along with a lot of questionable things. Either he's lying to make himself look better, or he really had no part to play. In either case, there's a different cautionary quality to the tale.
And even if Nick was more involved with events than he leads on, why does he tell the story? Clearly he feels an overwhelming bitterness and regret about things, as he says in the first chapter. Ultimately this adds a whole extra layer of meaning for me on top of the themes of desperation, longing, aspiration, and how the American Dream falls short.
One of my favorites. (I added an edit to help partially explain what I see in it)
It's also weirdly one of the inspirations for Fight Club, believe it or not
Edit: I get where you are coming from with your thoughts. I feel that you have to connect to the book in some way--before you even read it--to help you look past a lot of the flat bits. My family is from NY/NJ, so you hear a lot of stories of the poor trying to make it, plus all those classic gangster movies that are required viewing. It makes it super easy to project ideas onto the book, even if the "gangster" parts of Gatsby are very subdued (barely even there, really). There's still that feeling of desperation, and that kick in the gut at the end when it was all for nothing. Jay Gatz turned away from everything he was, destroyed himself to become someone new, and even "looked like he killed a man," which he must have done. Later, there is the car accident, one more death, and the end result is... nothing. Tom and Daisy just leave. And nothing changes. Nick is still kind of an ass, he doesn't hook up with the golf/tennis player, the World Series was fixed, the mansion used up, and all those people are dead; in addition, another man is conned into becoming a murderer, taking revenge on the poor man playing at riches, while the actual wealthy girl that did it simply walks away. The poor man who even fought in a war.
Nothing. It was all for fucking nothing.
A bunch of shit happened, people died, and then it ended.
Nothing.
I'm gonna go watch some funny puppy videos now.
Love this channel, by the way!
Read it in college. I enjoyed it and recall my professor calling it the great American novel. Tried to read it about 6 months ago but gave up as I just couldn't get into it. Just tried reading it again two days ago and finished reading it. I guess I just was in the mood. I started seeing how well it was structured, how good the writing is. I can appreciate what my professor was saying 50 years ago.
I have similar feelings about The Great Gatsby. It didn't provoke any emotions in me, I couldn't even hate any of the characters. Although I read it six years ago (and it was my first acquaintance with American literature), I still don't feel inspired to pick any of his other books.
If you loved Gatsby, I would recommend Michael Farris Smith's prequel, "Nick." It is based on Nick Carraway's, the narrator of Gatsby, life before he meets Gatsby. Also, the rest of Smith's work is genius, a bit more in the Southern noir vein.
Wow - that sounds great - thanks for the info!
Hi, I think this was a good review of the book. While I like the parallel with Fellini, I think that the movie that most resembles the decadence and nihilism of The Great gatsby is "La Grande Bellezza" by Sorrentino (The Great Beauty). This 2013 movie - oscar winning - tells the story of an upper class intellectual who, upon turning 60-something, discovers the essential meaningless life that he had been living for the past 40 years. He was a poor boy from South Italy who decided to move North to Rome, and eventually became famous after writing his first novel. The fame acquired allowed him to enter the top intellectual circles of Rome, where he came into contact with drugs, money, sex and the "sacred" celebrities of Europe. As years go by, he began writing less and less, and gradually slided into this decadent lifestyle of the upper classes so well described in The Great Gatsby. The movie begins with him realizing this, and trying to put an end to it. The whole movie is a fight between the protagonist's nihilism (deriving from having realized how meaningless his life and that of his friends is) and the will to look for the true beauty of life...the Great Beauty. I would say that the movie goes beyond Fitzgerald's story...in that the protagonist is able to move away from illusion, and ultimately finds the Great Beauty. One of the best movies of European cinema for sure.
It's been a while since I read The Great Gatsby but the reason I love it, similar to why I love La Dolce Vita, is that the characters are hollow at their core. They have these personas, but underneath the persona, there's nothing there. They try to escape their hollowness through parties, but that always results in desperation, angst, never true escape.
Also, I don't think you're being harsh towards the book, just honest about your thoughts on the book.
“The Chosen and the Beautiful” by Nghi Vo is a queer retelling of “ The Great Gatsby.” It is AMAZING!
I really enjoyed your discussion. I have reread Gatsby several times and I think you will find that you like it more with each reread. I think everything you said here is right, but I also think your reaction to the characters is in some ways exactly what Fitzgerald intended. The characters are like mannequins each, in their own way, simply modeling the behavior they think is expected or needed. Each feels hollow because they are. Their daily actions have no meaning and the things they thought would make them happy dont. Gatsby is hollow as well but because he hasnt gotten the person he thinks will make him happy he doesn't realize it. I think Myrtle's death is supposed to function just as it did for you. To me that's part of the genius of the book, but that doesn't mean it has to be something everyone likes.
I love what you said about the characters feeling more like mannequins than real-life people. I think I had this general impression subconsciously when I read it (in high school) but that really articulates it. I don't know if that in itself diminished my enjoyment though -- like you said, it kind of makes sense that the characters don't feel genuine because it reflects their affected personalities in trying to fit into their moneyed social spheres.
Great review all around, it's awesome that you can say you didn't like it but also recommend reading it nevertheless
I loved the book and have read it a few times. I agree with the statements you made in this review, but strangely, they are why I love the book. I love how Scott Fitzgerald juxtaposes facade versus reality. I will not claim that it is my favorite American classic. For me, The Grapes of Wrath is the top.
I did not know the story of Fitzgerald and Zelda was this dark, damn. I really liked the book, maybe not being from the US, and not having direct contact with the american dream helped, as did reading it when I was 16. I loved the descriptions, and the hollowness of characters made it feel dreamlike, almost aggressively as people tried to deny reality. The desperation of people trying to enjoy themselves, knowing something is wrong and eventually we will all age and die.
I read the book in high-school and loved it. I tried re-read it again in later on in my twenties and it was quite painful.
I don't know how but I already guessed it after watching last two reviews that the next one would be The Great Gatsby. Damn, it feels good to be right about it, great review!!
Fantastic review. Really summed up my feelings after my second read of the novel. I, like most, read it in high school and didn't have much more than a superficial appreciation of its themes. Upon reading it again in college, the themes seemed to carry the novel and I was left wanting more out of the characters and narrative. I know the characters are supposed to be hollow, but even hollow people can be made interesting and these characters were just boring. I have to say the ending though, in particular those last few paragraphs, were fantastic.
I think a big part of appreciating this book is knowing it’s context; what was going on in society at the time it was written.
I totally relate to what you’ve said here about the novelty of the novel having worn off as it’s been eclipsed by it’s own impact and omnipresent influence. I’ve always responded to the paintings of Matisse in this way. The novelty of his use of color and his reduction of form to line has had such an impact on visual culture since that his work just sort of elicits an “Eh.”
You should give Tenser is the Night, probably the most personal Fitzgerald book
I'm pretty tense at night too
I read it my junior year of high school, and we all liked it even the students who hated reading, and I think that was because it was something we could relate to at that age. High School especially in a small town is heavily divided by social classes, and the themes of how horrible the upper class were was relatable to those of us who were put down by other students apart of that higher social class. It felt like someone acknowledging the observations I and others had made since we first reached freshman year.
Greatest american novel? No no. That slot is reserved for the great white leviathan, Moby-Dick by Mr. Herman Melville.
Yup
Americans will be remembered for two things: Moby Dick and the Moon landing. Humanity, in general, will be remembered for Beethoven's Ninth. By whom? The galactic community or whoever's taking notes. That said, Great Gatsby's about the gorgeously crafted prose and how it gets across the themes of the book: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." The fact that it's one of the most quoted final lines of any novel isn't all hype and insufferable pretentiousness. It's good, it's just laid on a little too thick for people, but it fits.
Annoying, winy, shrill, boring comment. You are boring.
so glad to find reviews which are note just narrating the story line. Nice done !
When I see someone's book shelves I'm always curious, is there's a system to the way the books are arranged on the shelves?
I keep the read separate from unread and then favorite reads in a horizontal stack next to vertical read books. Books I can't wait to read also horizontal in the unread section. Also, I read Great Gatsby and it did not leave much of an impression.
This one flatlined for me too. One of the few 20th-century classics I didn't connect with. When I found out Murakami is a big fan of it, I did kind of appreciate it a little more when looking at it through his eyes. But like you say, its themes have been recycled so much it still ends up feeling flat.
You gonna love A Moveable Feast by Hemingway. Dynamics between Scott and Ernest is funniest shit I've ever read.
That one scene
great read
It's nice to watch this video because when I read the book I felt the same way. I thought I probably didn't understand the story, why is this so good, but now I see that maybe the problem is not just on me.
Just reread the Great Gatsby after 15 years. Being from Long Island close to where the book is based, I can connect deeply with it and the characters
It's an honest review, and sadly the novel is so famous influential that it's lost its magic on much of us. I was bored when I read it in HS. I think TGG was a flop because of what it revealed. Society wanted a romanic and they got a prophecy. I think the book gets lost on anyone who thinks it's just supposed to be a romance. In the end it's also a vicious critique. Gatsby is naive, Daisy is horrible, and it's a tragedy that he is even enraptured by her. It's a class critique. The three characters to die were all born poor, and the rich just move on. The eyes of God see through the dross into the trash. The car accident is an allegory for how the rich's lifestyle overruns the poor with no consequences. Other poor people are blamed (Gatsby's origins are poverty), and the American Dream is fake because Gatsby could only get rich by cultivation (Gatsby's two mentors) and crookedness (he's probably rich off alcohol). The beauty in the writing for me is that Nick is so drunkenly charmed by Gatsby's naive positivity, before being disillusioned in a way he should have seen coming. And some of us are charmed, but all of us walk away defeated.
For contemporary readers who want to compare the experience, try reading An Authentic Derivative. Basically Gatsby, but with Nashville hipsters in the 2010s.
Thank you. I felt broken for not loving this book.
It's my favorite novel so far. It's perfectly written, as Stephen Fry has said.
I really get that impression as well. I read it years ago when I first began reading English literature (not my first language) and started with "the classics". I really can't remember much about the book now. I vaguely remember the plot, but I can't remember how I FEEL about this book. So I really get you. And this video kind of makes me wants to go back to this book too. Just want to know if I would get it this time.
PS: Thanks for making such excellant book review videos! I really enjoy the fact that your reviews are always very sincere and authentic and really go deep into the book.
Also read it at 32 years old and reread it at 40. The first time also a little bit displeased by the shallowness of certain characters but the second time, I read it after reading "Tender is the night" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" and also a little novel about a trip to Mississippi with an old automobile to visit Zelda's parents. It was hilarious! Well, all this reading helped me understand a little better FScott Fitzgerald and "The Great Gatsby", now one of my favorite authors. Great channel, Portuguese fan here!
Studied this book at high school in the 1980s. I had a very adverse reaction getting through the first 20 pages, I wanted to put it down, but I’m glad I didn’t. I didn’t mind it. With the passage of time, I’d like to re-read it and see if I still like it.
I thought it was good when I read it but it didn't blow me away.Maybe I expected too much from it.I think I might try reading it again sometime in the future.
I’m 30 and like you, didn’t read it in high school. I read it recently and didn’t enjoy it. I’m not sure I’ll try it again. I liked his prose so I’ll read other works by him, but I’m at a point in my life where I don’t enjoy reading stories about people I dislike treating each other badly.
Love your videos, always informative, always entertaining. I get so many suggestions for my TBR list from you. Keep up the great work.
I have read TGG aloud probably almost 80 times because I taught four sections of high school American literature for over twenty years. Noticing the artistry and literary references in the novel, its interest is tireless to me. The novel was meant to shallow and the characters not realistic. Check out H. L. Mencken's devastating description of the plot, but it is in the telling of the story. For example, the only thing we learn about Gatsby's and Daisy's love is that the servants were fired and the great house was a pig sty. What? Was Alfred Steiglitz at Myrtle and Tom's party? Give it another try and look for the color symbols, angry diamonds, list of party goers. I could write a book.
i just read this book and i feel exactly the same way..
The Great Gatsby, when taken in a vacuum, is a pretty enjoyable novel. I re-read it recently, for the first time since high school, and I liked it. It's not exactly a hard book to get into. But it's also been so utterly tamed and diluted by decades of not only obsessive academic study but high school teachers forcing it on unsuspecting students that it has been totally de-fanged. You could read a fellow "Great American Novel" candidate like Moby Dick and still be taken in by its depth, its majesty, its sheer weirdness, and indeed I don't think Moby Dick has, or likely ever will be, been "tamed" after all this time.
But The Great Gatsby has, and that's a shame really.
I will shout Moby Dick from the rooftops.
Ishmael is by far the greatest narrator I've ever read. Flawless and so weird
Good review. Enjoyed watching/listening to your struggle to understand why you didn’t enjoy it. I thought everyone loved it. I mean... it’s great. Maybe you’re right that you should’ve read it when you were younger... who knows. At least you’ve finally read it - pretty embarrassing to go 32 years without reading it! ;) ;)
I've reas The Great Gatsby only once, and while it wasn't my favourite read of all time, I keep coming back to it in my head, because of the setting. I love being in that 1920s world, and that book captured a vibe that makes me want to re-read it every time I think about it. Still haven't re-read it though. Maybe this video is a sign that I should haha.
As a young man, Hunter S. Thompson typed out the Great Gatsby, word for word, (allegedly more than once) to feel what it was like to be a great author. Did the same with Hemingway's Farewell to Arms.
I read this novel multiple times from ages about 12 to 22 I really like it but understand some of the critique, I think it is perfectly plotted which can almost make it feel a bit too tightly wound like a movie script, I am amazed that you would feel you've outgrown this book but didn't think that about On the Road
I liked the book cause I related to Gatsby ambition for greatness & I think most people do. it was profound to me how you can be charming smart handsome & hardworking but climbing the wrong latter with the wrong paradigm can make it pointless.
We read it in English Comp 101. The instructor suprised me by reading passages concerning Myrtle's death and laughing as he read.He said this was really great writing.
Also one of my least favourites, i was incredibly bored and felt quite confused that I wasn’t enjoying it as everyone holds it with high regard. It’s a solid 2/5 on a good day, but I can’t remember much that happens in it as it’s quite forgettable also.
Although I'm a fan of the book, having read it in high school, I totally get where Cliff is coming from. I felt the same way the first time I listened to Sgt. Pepper. It's like being born knowing that Darth Vader is Luke's father or that Charleton Heston was on Earth the whole time in the first Planet of the Apes movie. It's just there in the collective pop culture conscious.
If you like Fitzgerald's style, I would recommend "Tender is the Night" by Fitzgerald, or "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney.
I'm currently readling Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison, it would be great to hear your opinion on that book.
Great book!
Clifford Lee, I agree with your assessment of The Great Gatsby. I read 111 books last year and I ranked Gatsby #102 of 111. It was on all of my "best of" lists. I thought, " what am I missing?" So I was reassured by your review. By the way, I ranked Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson as the best of the 111 books I read last year.
Winesburg, Ohio: you obviously know a quality act when you see it. Now you've made me wanna read it again.
Congrats on having shitty taste, boring old man with boring lists.
As someone to whom Fitzgerald has been a big inspiration and who is one of my favorite writers, I personally also have never really gotten into The Great Gatsby. I also never had to read it for school but read it three different times on my own (the first time most certainly too young I think I was about twelve or thirteen and it was at my mothers recommendation) but every time even when I tried my best to love it with my whole being I just mostly found it boring. I didn’t end up loving Fitzgerald until I read Tender is the Night just because it felt so much more real and interesting. You could argue of course that the boredom and the flat characters are intentional considering they haven’t managed to develop beyond their vaguely defined “happy” dreams, but it still doesn’t make much of an interesting story. I do love the prose of The Great Gatsby because it’s Fitzgerald, but there’s just something missing there for me. I’m glad that someone else feels this way. It makes my opinion feel more valid and less contrarian.
I'd love a framed poster of that cover. Which is as iconic as the novel its self by the way.
It's title, if you are of the persuasion as to be informed of such triva is , "celestial eyes" and is the art work of one, Francis Cugat. ...TMI?
It's been about 20 years so please forgive the lack of character names and mis-rememberings.
To paraphrase a mentally handicapped fellow on a bus I was on "Hey, I heard that rich people aren't happy. Is that true?" Gadsby is basically that the book.
Nick has no passions and is wealthy enough and in a position in which he does not need to have any to get through life comfortably. He gets pulled along by Gadsby solely due to his familial connection to Daisy (Gadsby making him a tool to get access to his desire), not having anything better to do, and the pleasure of human company.
Gadsby has deified Daisy in his mind, they met by chance when they were young and wooing her by in his words 'seeming wise by knowing things she didn't'. He goes back to war and believes that he needs extreme wealth to bridge the social class gap between them. He does so by shady means (the phone calls Nick sees him take are, as the kids used to say; "sus as f***"), comes back to find her married with a kid. But he's a man with drive and he's committed to achieve Daisy.
Daisy fell in love with Gadsby but lacked the will to avoid a marriage to her husband that she was pushed into. Since then she's coped as best she can with a self-obsessed husband and a child she loves. Going with Gadsby would be a huge risk to her current position.
Daisy's husband is the ultimate villain in the story but he's too self-absorbed to be able to notice it.
I found the story to be about people struggling with their desires and the social rules of their class. Also boring, but my preferred books were 40k novels at the time. Arguably still are! Thanks Dad for reading _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ to me as a kid.
Weird, I read the Great Gatsby for the first time in my 30's and I loved it. I still love the 1920's as well. Have you seen Midnight in Paris? I see Gatsby as more than just a criticism of the wealthy class, but the extremes one will go to get the person they love, even so far as to change their identity. I'm also fascinated by stories where a character changes their identity- like Don Quixote for example!
I have a habit of reading the favorite books of my favorite authors and I'm more often than not disappointed. I read the House of the Sleeping Beauties, by Kawabata, three times, because Gabriel García Márquez said this was the book he wished he had written, and I disliked it all the times I read it. I read The Great Gatsby at 19 because it was Haruki Murakami's favorite book, and I didn't like it either. I could see why it was a great book, and I liked the argument - that the great Gatsby was the great naïve for believing the American dream, but it just didn't resonate with me. I read it again at 25 or 26, and that time, I loved it. I could highlight every line of every page, I found it so beautifully written, and I found the story much deeper. I think that part of the reason why was that I wasn't looking at the characters as people living a story, but as symbols and representations. The story was serving the argument, and not the other way around. I think this book is certainly worth a second chance, but just because a book is a great classic, it doesn't have to forcibly be your cup of tea.
I'm lucky in that I didn't read it for school, but it was one of the first books I read. Did it in a day or two and I just found it sublime. Like a poem. It's important to note that F Scott stole large passages from his wife Zelda's diaries, such as a lot of the character descriptions and some of the most famous lines from Daisy.
I read it on a train between Melbourne & Sydney 10 yrs ago. It was (& still is) the most beautiful book I've ever read. It was the best of Fitzgerald's work. I found his other novels to be meh in comparison to Gatsby.
This book and Catcher in the Rye have always been held up as these perfect novels but they were like pulling teeth
You MUST read Corrigan's book. It is one of the most interesting non-fiction books and made me appreciate and love The GG. Some thoughts: the undercurrents of Catholicism in the novel. And keep in mind Fitzgerald dealt in caricatures -- that's basically his entire novel This Side of Paradise. TY for the honest thoughts here & u clearly appreciate it but didn't like it on first read.
I dont understand the hype at all for this book. It's pretty good, but I never want to read it again.
i think the imagery and style is pretty good but the story is meh
Im in this camp. It made no impression on me. But to be fair its not to my taste.
Agree and Tender Is The Night is worse. I think its one of the most overrated American novels.
You are one of the rare Americans that reads outside of the Anglo-American canon, having read classics from South America and France before the well-known books that make it on to the list of all those 'Best Books' lists. Having grown up in the Commonwealth, I too grew up believing that the best books were 'The Great Gatsby', 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Fahrenheit 451', 'To Kill a Mockingbird' etc. However, I was lucky enough to spend several years overseas and during that time was introduced to literature from all over the world and when I finally ended up reading these 'best books ever written', I was seriously underwhelmed. I would argue your reaction to the book is a product of a broader issue of who decides what are the best books that everyone should read. I think economic power certainly has a part to play in promoting culture whether it be popular, with American popular culture omnipresent all around the world but also 'high brow' culture such as literature. I do not think that if we made an objective (to the point where such a thing is possible) list of the best books ever written from all around the world, these American classics would make the cut. In comparison with books such as Agua Viva and the Blind Owl, they are just mediocre but the economic power of the country in which the writers are from (even if the writers themselves never made any money) has elevated these books to a status which they do not deserve.
I enjoyed The Great Gatsby in 11th grade, although that was due more to the style than to the deeper themes, which were far beyond my life experience at that point. Why do I love it now?
1) It takes me straight back to the 1920s, and like other novels and also silent films from that era it brings me closer to the generation of my grandparents, even if they themselves, as working people, were far removed from Jazz Age luxury. If the characters appear flat, that's how I perceive the propertied classes in that lost age. No matter how much they danced and guzzled champagne, they just couldn't get no satisfaction. Moreover, they were all borrowing from an impossible future, and it all came crashing down before the decade was out. This book is my personal time machine.
2) The notion that Gatsby is really doing everything he does just to win the affections of a woman he can never have and whom he doesn't even genuinely love, because he's actually in love with a younger and more appealing version of himself, opened my eyes to some not-so-wonderful aspects of my own personality. I actually share some Gatsby traits myself (without the wealth and the mansion, sad to say), and thanks to the book I'm gradually eliminating them from my life. For me, this book is a winner all the way.
I’d give Tender Is the Night a shot, not The Beautiful and Damned.
With you. Tender is easily Fitzgerald’s best novel by far.
The Beautiful and Damned is the truest thing Fitzgerald ever wrote. Its damn near like his diary.
@@nomorenames5568 A good portion of his work has that effect. This Side of Paradise is essentially autofiction. Still, if “true” is the aim, you might as well read The Crack-Up instead of The Beautiful and Damned. There’s plenty of Fitzgerald in Tender-the decay of talent due to drink, the volatile relationship of Dick and Nicole Driver, not to mention the car accident and the scene with the cops in Rome (both are quite literally lifted from Fitzgerald’s life).
Not sure if you take recommendations through RUclips comments, but you MUST read Thomas The Obscure, by Maurice Blanchot. An utterly mind-bending, eye-widening, masterful, short work of darkness, insanity, death, resurrection, graves, talking cats, love, and life; but, mostly, it is a gripping philosophical musing on existence, being, space, time, and the self.
The great part is that my extremely short synopsis - even attempting to give a synopsis is almost disrespectful to this masterpiece - gives no spoilers, because it is impossible to spoil this book in any meaningful way.
The author is inspired hugely by Kafka, whose works he supposedly analysed in minute detail - so expect the twisting, turning, confusion of a Kafkaesque nightmare.
A short read, of ~120 pages, split into very short chapters, with each page packed full of grim literary and philosophical genius!
Reading Thomas The obscure violated my consciousness and Its surrealist allegory of experiencing a poetical death left me in a intense state of loathing. I find Blanchot quite the curious and unique philosopher and Thomas the Obscure picked my curiosity but It didn't live up to the standars of his other philosophical writings like the gaze of Orpheus or The Essential Solitude. Great and influencial philosopher not much a storyteller haha Glad someone knows about him! cheers
Have you read the relatively new Charlie Kaufman novel "Antkind"? I think it is absolutely great and unlike anything i've ever read before. Would totally recommend and love to hear your opinion on it one day :)
I think you're sort of supposed to hate the characters. they're supposed to be almost impossibly placed caricatures
Fitzgerald wrote some of the most lyrical stories of alltime about thoroughly unlikable people, imo. I think that's trues of all of his novels.
@@MothGirl007 absolutely. I agree with both points. timeless prose with (I think) intentionally unlikable characters
Hollywood Park by Mike Jollet of the Airborne Toxic Event is supposedly a riveting read. If you’re a fan of cults and broken families, it definitely seems like the place to be.
If you ever get the time, and you want to read a great book from an author who died too soon to garnish a real reputation; but wowed me to the point that when I saw his death in the news I nearly cried. Read the book that's better than Starship Troopers, read the book that was expressly written because the author was so disappointed with and bored by Starship Troopers he wrote his book instead, Armor by. John Steakley. He has basically been forever trapped in the slow decline of the gone too soon author, having written only two novels and a few short stories; all of his incomplete manuscripts being lost; a few scraps he released online as excerpts to those now lost works in progress. Armor is his masterpiece, his first novel, and he deserves to be remembered for it, hell, it deserves to be remembered period. RIP John Steakley: gone too soon but not yet forgotten.
You, and everyone else reading this, should check out "The Ring is Closed" by Knut Hamsun. He wrote it as an answer/commentary on The Great Gatsby. It is actually considered one of Hamsuns best novels in many literary circles in Norway, although it is far from his most read novels. He really ended on a high note!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA OMYGOSH YOU DID IT!!! YOU REVIEWED GREAT GATSBY!!!!!
Read this in high school, one the great ones and also a favorite, great review!
I would love to watch a video of you reviewing Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. It's 150 pages and surprisingly filled with ideas. To be honest, I didn't much understand the ending, but after using the reddit read along, I was blown away by it. Besides the ending it feels very consumable and incredibly fun.
I love the weekly reviews Cliff, keep it up!
Thank you for posting this!!!! I'm 36 and just got into a position at work where I can essentially listen to audio books all day. I have quite a list built up but I keep hearing to read Gatsby. I also was not part of the "read it in school" club, so was excited to see what it was all about. The audio book is under 6 hours so listened to it today at work. The whole time, I kept waiting... and waiting. Surely the next chapter is where it opens up to where I actually start caring about the characters and plot, but it never came. I came home after work and ranted for about 20mins to my wife about how much I was let down by the book. You hit the nail on the head with your comment of "I don't care" which is exactly what I thought while listening, and also what I reiterated about 15 times to my wife during my review/rant. Was it well written? Yes. It just came down to "oh that's a neat thing that just happened, but I just don't care about the characters enough for it to make me feel anything" I honestly feel that a lot of people who LOVE Gatsby are swayed by the fact that they're SUPPOSED to love it, or likewise read it during school and were told by their teachers that it's one of the greatest books ever, and therefore are convinced it was spectacular. Not for me. Rant over :)
also I have to throw in this quote I saw on another book review that I think Gatsby fits into : "A classic is a book nobody wants to read but everybody wants to have read."
-Mark Twain
Honestly, when someone asks me about my opinions about the Great Gatsby I might as well send them this video. I rarely agree with everything said in book reviews, even in your reviews, but this time I did entirely.
Also, you have probably already thought of it, but you really need to read Karl Ove Knausgård's The Morning Star when it comes out in English. Excellent book. It's something different but feels just as real as Min Kamp.
Catch-22 spawned a phrase & has been in print since it came out &, altho a war-novel, captures every USA socio-economic level.
I'd call it an anti-war novel