by Jessica Ham
With The Great Gatsby movie just release this weekend it seemed a perfect time to review the book it is based on. Watch for a review of the movie soon!
The Great Gatsby is a book that almost every high school student has had to read. Most of the time students hate the books they are forced to read in school, but I can guarantee you that The Great Gatsby is not one of them. I read it my junior year of high school and although I knew nothing about it, the description sounded intriguing. I got a couple pages in and I was hooked. The Great Gatsby has been my favorite book for four years now and it always will be. Romance, betrayal, and a strange, mysterious guy, what more do you need in a book?
The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and takes place right before The Great Depression. The book is narrated by the character Nick Carroway, a WWI veteran who takes a job in New York City as a bond salesman. Nick rents a house on Long Island right next door to the mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire. Nick is soon invited to one of Gatsby’s infamous parties where he meets Gatsby, who becomes his friend for the rest of the novel. We are then introduced to Daisy Buchanan, the female main character who has a mysterious past with Gatsby. The Great Gatsby all in all is a telling of Nick’s days of friendship with the infamous Jay Gatsby and the rich people connected to him.
The story is not the only great part about this book. The writing is beyond incredible. Fitzgerald uses so many clever metaphors and symbols. You could take apart every sentence of the novel and find that every single sentence has a deep meaning. In most of Fitzgerald’s novels he is writing about his own life in a way. He was always in love with a rich, out of his league woman. And so is Gatsby, and many of the other protagonists in his other novels. While reading The Great Gatsby you feel sorry for Fitzgerald, because he is Gatsby.
So go to a library or a bookstore and pick up a copy of The Great Gatsby. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
The Great Gatsby is tied for my favorite book. I reread it every few years and never get tired of it. The new movie is wonderful, too. And you are so right, Jessica, the novel is very autobiographical. Fitzgerald was always chasing the “dream.” He also died young.