Book Review (Rucksack): The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925

The Raccoon: The Great Gatsby follows Nick Carraway, a young man who moves to New York City in 1922 in hopes of making a fortune.  Over the course of several months spent with his rich neighbors, Nick comes face to face with the pitfalls of the American Dream.

UNMASKED: The Great Gatsby was far too short.  Fitzgerald aimed to show his readers a glimpse of the “Lost Generation,” the millions of people across the United States who became disillusioned with the notions of justice and brotherhood after World War I; however, this noble goal yielded such a lack of significant events or turning points that after I finished the book, all I said was, “Oh.”  So that’s what happened.  So what?

The entirety of The Great Gatsby resembles only three or four episodes in a drama that should have contained at least ten, with another season following.  Due to the book’s length, the characters fit into perfect stencils, and the reader is given neither time nor motivation to relate to them.  Moreover, the narrator’s belief that he is unimportant to the story began as an intriguing idea, with the promise of filling out the other characters.  Unfortunately, Fitzgerald executed it as nothing more than a way to skip several weeks at a time in the story.

Finally, the book ends abruptly, with Nick circling back into the same position that he began the story in.  The reader is left to move on and never think of The Great Gatsby again.

Strengths:

• Fitzgerald’s realistic dialogue greatly helps to show the characters’ thoughts and personalities.
• The novel serves as an accurate historical study of the 1920s.
• The slight sprinkling of metaphor matches the way we regularly see the world.

Weaknesses:

• Many interesting ideas are introduced but never revisited.
• I am confused about what Fitzgerald defines as love and why it existed between such flawed characters.

Rating: 14/20 oranges

Ideal Setting: Read this whenever you feel jealous of the insanely rich.  The Great Gatsby shows just how much worse your problems can be when you have money.