Original Publication Date: 1925
Genre:
American, classic Topics: Jazz Age, between the wars
Review by : Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.wordpress.com)
With all the recent hoopla about the recently released movie
adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” and with the recommendation of a trusted
fellow reader, I decided to pick up a copy of the book and see how it
read. The last time I had poked my head
into it was during the rush and crush of grad school, and as that was such a
rushed read, I don’t think I got a real appreciation of it. So read it again
this week (and then immediately read it one more time to enjoy the writing and
imagery at a much more leisurely pace).
Wow. What a difference a few years makes. This more recent
reading was a completely different experience for me and I realized that I had
not the same appreciation before due to the speed of grad school reading
requirements or because I am much more experienced in the world of books now.
(Perhaps it’s both.)
This is one of the few books that I immediately picked up
and read again once I had finished it. I wanted to read it a second time to
notice all the recurring imagery that Fitzgerald had put in there, and also,
having read a brief biography of Fitzgerald and Zelda (both troubled in their
own ways), it’s clearly much more autobiographical than I had realized before.
I’m not going to go over the plot – there are other
resources for that and besides, I’d like people to read the original text to
get their own ideas. This is fabulously written and seems to perfectly capture
the rich idle ennui of the wealthy young in the Jazz Age (a phrase,
incidentally, that Fitzgerald is credited with originating). The characters in
this story drink to get drunk, they chat with people they don’t know about
things they don’t care about, and all this in an atmosphere of excess – money,
time, drink…
Fitzgerald and wife Zelda spent some time as expats in Paris
at the same time as Hemingway and those guys, and although Fitzgerald and
Hemingway were good friends, Hemingway rather sneered at Fitzgerald’s “selling
out” and writing commercial stories to pay the bills. (Oh, how superior you
must be, Ernie.) They both had alcohol problems and marital challenges, and
obviously influenced each other in how they wrote – very spare sentences
(despite the excessive and overloaded world Fitzgerald portrays).
Gatsby’s world seems to have been bought on every level –
one evening, the “premature moon, produced like the supper, no doubt, out of a
caterer’s basket…” Everything can be bought, everything can be sold.
Written in 1925, it predated the Depression years and
reflects the over-consumption and deep feeling of detachment and isolation felt
by some people at that time. Fitzgerald’s characters have a sense of despair
unspoken and Gatsby is frequently portrayed removed from all his guests by him
not drinking, by the shallow chatter, and by the fact that most of his guests
don’t even know the host.
Fitzgerald writes that Gatsby not only dispenses generous
hospitality to people, but also “dispensed starlight to casual moths”. Light plays a huge role in this book – just
think of the green light at the end of the dock – as does color (especially colors
linked with the sun: yellow, gold, orange… Once you see this, you tend to
recognize it more than otherwise. At least, I did.)
It’s a love story (of so many things) on some levels, but
it’s not one that the typical person would want to replicate – it’s unrequited
(or is it?), it’s complicated, it’s delayed by five years and a marriage to the
wrong person (Daisy to Tom). And throughout the story, I would argue that
there’s a light veiled theme of same-sex attraction between various
combinations of characters (mainly male).
Gatsby wants to go back to the past when he first met Daisy five years
ago, although it’s not possible (and not healthy) to do so. And the “five
years” pattern repeats itself quite a few times: Gatsby and his rich friend Dan
Cody were together on the nautical adventure for five years, it’s been five
years since Gatsby has last seen Daisy, and he’s been living on West Egg for
five years… Fitzgerald is not known for his “sticking to the facts” (was “not
scrupulous about real details” is how scholar Dr. Matthew Bruccoli* put it) and
“was incapable of factual meticulousness” (i.e. he says that Nick Carraway was
from the Mid-West: San Francisco! – but details schmetails.) So – was the
five-year period there for a reason?
“Can’t repeat the past?... Why of course you can!” (Jay Gatsby)
This is really one of the best books that I have read this
year, and I can’t believe that I didn’t really appreciate (or even like) this
book on earlier readings. If this was a title forced on you in your younger
educational days, I urge you to take another look at it. With the experience of
years, it can be a completely different experience to read it again and I have
loved reading it this time around.
Now I’m not sure about going to the movie – I can’t believe
that it would do justice to such a rich storyline and characters. Highly
recommended.
·
I am sure this guy has never received any guff
about his last name. Nope. Never.
Download The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald at Project Gutenberg.
