The Great Gatsby - Book Review

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
ISNB-13: 978-0-7432-7356-5
ISBN-10: 0-7432-7356-7
5 stars

Set in the summer of 1922, “The Great Gatsby” is one of the most wonderfully written books one can ever experience.  Told from the perspective of an outsider, Fitzgerald pulls the reader in with amazingly detailed descriptions of a world so few are a part of.

Nick Carraway is a Midwesterner spending his summer in New York.  He's working in the city and living in Long Island in West Egg, so named for the two rocks that protrude from the water that resemble two enormous eggs.  It's a new life for him and one he never seems to fully embrace or understand.

Soon after moving in, he finds his neighbor is one of the most popular individuals in West Egg, holding parties that last for days and are legendary among both locals and city dwellers alike.  He is invited to one these parties and goes, a bit uncomfortable but very curious.  Intrigued by the world he is witnessing in his back yard, he keeps his distance in almost a conscience decision to hold it all at arms length where the view is better.  One also senses Nick feels he is not a part of this world and challenges himself to remain true to who he is and his ideals, even if he is not entirely sure what those ideals are.

Over the course of his stay, Nick become acquainted with Jay Gatsby who doesn't seem to know who he is or what he wants to be --- an attitude which Nicks seems interested and slightly taken aback by.  In some ways, it also compels him to want to help since one can see how little Gatsby can do for himself or at least that is the impression given by his money, servants, and home. 

The other couple Nick knows on the island, Tom and Daisy Buchannan, are also very rich and what one would consider completely and utterly uncaring; a factor in Nick's assessment and strange acceptance of his time on the island.

In less than 200 pages, Fitzgerald creates a world so rich in detail, extravagance, and inhabited by characters of such a careless nature one has trouble believing they are all part of the same book.  It's a small snapshot of human nature one hopes is never a reflection.  They are simple creatures who care nothing more than about themselves and what they can get out of anyone and any situation. 

His descriptions are fabulous and words are magnificent in choice.  He gives life to very small things --- curtains, the air moving a dress in the breeze, and a small benign movement of a hand which can signal more in a single twitch than a reader could ever imagine.