The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem."

 I borrow an edition from the library. The preface says that there are some missing pages. So if you go "WHAT!", it might, might be because of the missing pages/plot holes.

Wow. This book is recommended by me for all those lazy, clueless teenagers out there. Punks. Lazy. *Cough* Lazy! *Cough*

The Great Gatsby is a Romeo and Juliet book from the beginning to the very end. It's a sad song that continuously foreshadows the misfortunates at the end. It's told from Nick's side of the story. Nick is what I call a person who stands on the sidelines. Touching the main characters if he needs to touch them. What he really does is sit on the sidelines and act as a bard, telling and singing of the sad love song between a married rich woman and a single party animal, who was once in the army.

The changes in Nick's perspective were rather interesting. Mr. Fitzgerald (what a mouthful) has done a excellent job on his personality and behavior. *Applauds*

The main stars are Daisy and Jay.

Jay Gatsby throws parties frequently, hoping for a day when Daisy would come over and visit his house. I found that his love has turn into severe stalking/obsessed behaviors. Jay Gatsby, who is very delightful with his "old sport" talk, is desperately in love with Daisy every since he saw her five years ago. (Wish we have guys like Mr. Gatsby.) Five years ago, Jay Gatsby was a major in World War I. That was how he met Daisy. Mr. Gatsby, believing he needed to be rich to earn Daisy's love, became a little shady. He went to the bad side of the law (bootlegging).

Mr. Gatsby was adorable when he constantly thought that it was a bad idea to meet Daisy. He kept on repeating that it was a bad idea and wanted to walk away because he thought he couldn't do it.

Daisy Fay or Daisy Buchanan is apparently very attractive, is a mother, has a child, and is married. She is also (as I mentioned before) MARRIED to Tom Buchanan. Daisy Fay is in love with both Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. She's in a love triangle, unfortunately. She ends up having an affair with Jay Gatsby. As I mentioned before, this book is like Romeo and Juliet because of the ending. Daisy Buchanan is a rich girl with a rich background unlike Jay Gatsby. Daisy Buchanan is not exactly an likable character. She doesn't really care about her actions. She doesn't take full blame for what she does. I felt that Daisy Buchanan should have took full blame and the fall instead of Jay Gatsby. 

Tom Buchanan... It's easy for readers to just hate him. He is not exactly likable. Readers can hate him within the first few chapters of The Great Gatsby.

The writing was difficult for me to understand. I felt that it would be difficult for younger readers to understand. Older readers would have an easier time than the younger readers, but it is considered difficult even for them. Many readers would just give up within the first five pages, maybe even the first page. It's hard to understand the older and stricter (grammatically) book of the old age. 

The rating of this book is a three out of five.