The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.58 You Save: $7.42 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.59 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Great Gatsby
Book Review: A very powerful American tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book in high school, and I loved the prose. Fitzgerald paints really amazing pictures with his words.
However, this book was much more powerful when I read it again as an adult. For me, the theme of the book was that you can't escape your past, and you have to be careful what you wish for in your future. It really drives home the point that you can't depend on other people for your happiness. You just don't know when one of those solid people that you trust turns out to be one of the shallow people instead.
This book is a tragedy, and it seems more powerful than the Greek tragedies I've read. In Greek tragedy, so much of what happens seems to happen as a whim of the gods and there is nothing anyone can do to escape their fate. Fate takes control for Gatsby, but he doesn't have the gods to blame. It makes it a much more tragic story.
I strongly recommend reading this book, even if (or maybe especially if) you've read it before. It's a much more powerful book to read once you've been in the position to have lost some of your dreams, to see the shallowness of the real world outside of high school or college.
Book Review: All hype
Summary: 1 Stars
If people read this book without knowing its history of success, what would they think of it? My guess is that it would be forgotten very quickly. If you are a high school student assigned to read this book, then unfortunately you have to suffer through it. If you are a teacher, please save the children and assign them a more interesting book. For those reading for pleasure, I recommend skipping this poorly written book. The characters are cartoons. They behave in a predictable manner and have no depth. Perhaps at the time it was written, people saw something in it that made it a worthwhile read but it has not passed the test of time. Don't waste your time.Book Review: Amazing Read
Summary: 5 Stars
The Great Gatsby is an amazing read for anyone of any age. This is one of the greatest written American tragedies. With this tale of Jay Gatsby you start to get really engulfed into the story. With the phenomenal writting done by F. Scott Fitzgerald you can really feel the emotion that is captured. It feels as though every line was written to perfection and that F.Scott Fitzgerald spent his life writing this book. With the reading of this book you can really feel the theme of the american dream at its finest a long with many of the other themes that are in this book. I would reccomened this book to anyone.Book Review: Amazing modern day tragedy. A must read!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book took me by surprise. The first two chapters didn't really get me into the book, and I found myself feeling awkward as I followed a seemingly pointless beginning. But, trust me, it's worth it. The book took off and left me gasping for air. The Great Gatsby is truly a modern day tragedy, and a very well written one at that. As the story progresses, you get drawn into the conflicts and the characters. You feel bad for some characters, feel angry at others, and become all the more attached to the words that Fitzgerald has written. This is a book that, once it takes off, you cannot put down. Not that it's intense, but that it's involving. It's depressing, but amazing at the same time. Truly a masterpiece of literature that everyone should read at least once!Book Review: An American Tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
As Americans, we have the God given right to be blond, blue-eyed, rich, beautiful and to get what we want when we want it. It's our Manifest Destiny. Gatsby knew that then. And, we know it now.
Much like today, in the America of 1925 all things were possible. The country, having only recently been born yet again following its latest Baptism of Fire, was in its second or third childhood. As in previous reincarnations, progress was fast. The USA was now the most powerful country in the world. Women could vote. Negroes were driving their own cars. Radio, much like the printing press before it and the Internet after it, was providing access to whole new classes of people. Farmers in Iowa. Pennsylvania Coal Miners. Cowboys. Truckers. They all wanted their piece of the pie. And the pie was growing like wildfire. The stock market was setting record highs on a daily basis. Fully a third of the population was new immigrants. Joe Kennedy, the son of an Irish immigrant, was making his fortune running scotch into the US through Canada. Italian immigrant, Al Capone was getting even richer selling bootleg booze made right here in the good old USA. These newcomers proved that it was possible to get rich overnight. If they could do it, anyone could do it. Why, a poor man could even aspire to becoming president of the USA. Old Abe proved it was possible. In America, a man like Gatsby, if he had enough money, could even win over a Daisy Buchanan. It was possible.