Book Review on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is an intricately crafted novel that depicts the happenings in America’s Jazz Age. I consider this novel as one of the classic stories I’ve read. With its decades of existence, I still find it captivating to re-read the book and relive F. Scott Fitzgerald’s telling on the conception of love, affluence and societal class. You’d find that the way Fitzgerald had written the book would leave you wanting to dig deeper into the story. In short, every single page is bursting with suspense. The book reveals evocative qualities of pertinent issues in the 1920’s. With its descriptive texts, the characters and settings are brought to life as if you were witnessing the event.
The book is articulately narrated by Nick Carraway’s point of view, Jay Gatsby’s modest neighbour in Long Island that ultimately became his most trusted friend. However, as the story progresses, the viewpoint of the other characters are also featured. Gatsby’s ostentatious obsession for Daisy Fay Buchanan portrays a love story with both passive insistence and languid pall. The setting depicts the conflicting nature of the American dream in the 1920’s which gives sobriety to the classic novel. Five years after Jay and Daisy ended their romance; the two had come to different points in their lives. Daisy married Tom Buchanan for the one and only reason: to continuously live a life in luxury. Gatsby, on the other hand, has accrued wealth through his dubious ways. Carraway is responsible for bringing the lovers back together. Gatsby’s romance with Daisy is once again rekindled. Tom, on the other hand, continues carelessly with an auto mechanic’s greedy wife. Nick gets trapped in the high society and has a relationship with a young golf pro, Jordan Baker.
Fitzgerald’s eloquent description on how people lived and acted at a time where prosperity and wealth can blind anyone is exquisite. I was definitely enthralled by how he described Gatsby’s massive wealth especially the parts when he throws parties every Saturday. I would have to say that my first reading of the book led me to confusion due to its text but it added mystery for me to fully delve into the story.
