These days I’ve read another book from the so-called best authors of all time – The Great Gatsby. This is probably second book which I’ve read by my most beloved American writer – F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Unfortunately, or not I have watched the movie first so I have already formulated an idea about the characters, the world, the atmosphere and the story.
But I was curious if the movie and the book are close into their representation of the world of that era. Without further ado I will jump into the casual short and relatively straight to the point book review.
The story
The story of the book revolves around the enigmatic, emotional by heart and calm on the surface appreciator of art and beauty – Jay Gatsby.
He had a long-forgotten love story with Daisy Buchanan which is currently the wife of a very rich, aggressive and rude businessman Tom Buchanan.
The book follows the reintroduction of Gatsby to Daisy by his new friend, neighbor and cousin of Daisy – Nick Caraway.
Deep inside himself Gatsby is hoping to reunite again with Daisy. Again, after he had to sacrifice their love so he can accumulate fortune, fame and name for himself as a proof to be a worthy man for her and her family.
There are a lot of misfortune events, love, hate, betrayal and even death…
Finally, I could say that the story of the book is somewhat trivial – a love story in its concept but the way the characters are connected between each other makes the book so special and unique.
The characters
Every single character has his own role and place into this book. At my opinion most of them are a reincarnation of the different classes in the American society of these days. The story is marked by the familiar idealistic touch of Fitzgerald so are his characters.
Gatsby being the epitome of success, charm, romantic soul and in the same time a military veteran, hiding a dark past and a promise for something more…
Daisy part of a rich family with a history behind it, a fragile soul, partly a drama queen partly a girl which didn’t know exactly what she wants, living the casual rich live for a girl in that social class.
Tom Buchanan hungry beast for power and money, for being always right and probably secretly desiring to be the center of the universe. Secretly being jealous of the passionate but forbidden love between Gatsby and Daisy.
And last but not least Nick – the good neighbor of Gatsby which can be an epitome of the middle-class man with a boring profession and somewhat purposeless way of living.
He is always fascinated by brave men like Gatsby because of their own capacity to pursuit their dreams according to their moral compass and strong inner intuition.
Language complexity
Lately I’ve come to the realization that most of the books from the early periods of the American era are probably harder to read than the books written the last two decades or so. There is one interesting notion at least in my country which is: “don’t judge a book by its covers”.
This book is the perfect example of this notion. It is a small book with a total amount of around 200 pages. I was starting to read it with the easy-going attitude but after 20 or 30 pages I’ve met more unknown words than I’ve met so far in 500 pages by other less known authors. Maybe I am exaggerating here.
It’s very rich and dense material which is a good thing on my opinion because more and more books are focused on the action than on representing a beautiful atmosphere by enriching your imagination and your knowledge of the world by using sometimes sophisticated words and expressions.
I could say that there were some old expressions like “old sport” which were unknown to me and some other idioms from that time period but still I was fascinated by the book and the way the author express himself.
Pace of action
There were really fast episodes followed by more detail saturated ones. In terms of emotional burden, the book wasn’t that of a difficulty for me. Maybe the main reason was that I have been already familiar with the story and the characters because of the movie so I was “emotionally aware”.
Overall it is a book which tend more to the fast-paced books filled with emotions and mystery than these with atmospheric explanations and small talks.
Overall
I can say that probably there isn’t enough words to describe one of the best authors of the American history and culture of all times F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Overall, I am very subjective especially concerning this author. The reason is because I like his way of expression and the way he is describing one of the most progressive eras of American history. I like his idealistic vision of that time, the moral codex of characters like Gatsby, the love and why not the green light which is clearing the fog in front of each one of us – the readers.
Which is leading us towards our own unique versions of Gatsby, Daisy, Nick or whoever you like from his books.
Thank you for your time.
Amusika 