You cannot be regular online book shopper or recommendations pilfer and not have come across this book's name thrown about a bunch of time onto you. It is like the cheeseburgers of classic stories. It is assumed that if you ever have read more than a couple dozen books in your life time. This has to be one of them. Especially if you have a bunch of bengali snobs as friends. So there you go, I've finally read this book. Happy now?
This book is like a masterclass in novel writing. I wouldn't be surprised if they make students read this book as homework in every first year of every creative writing course. I mean, if nothing else, this book is very well written. The editing is on point. There are no paragraph out of place, no extra adjectives inserted, no words wastefully used. Everything so crisp and apt. Something that I fail a lot at, come to think of it. But Mr Fitzgerald is a natural at it. I am a fan just by that much.
Characters
Nick Carraway - An unmarried veteran, recently starting out in the bonds business. He is not especially socially adept, but very optimistic and friendly. And as a new resident in a city like West Egg he finds none of those qualities actually amounts to much in here.
Daisy Buchanan - Nick's cousin. The main girl being fought over by the two alpha males. She is sweet, dreamy and the kind of girl who believes it when the fairy tales end with 'they lived happily ever after'.
Tom Buchanan - Daisy's husband, and pure-blood dude. He is rich, strong, flamboyant, charming and a philanderer. He is the kind of guy who has always known success and wealth, and truly believes his destined for nothing less than greatness.
Jay Gatsby - The mysterious filthy rich guy in town. Famous for throwing the most outlandish of parties, everyone is invited. Weekends at his house is filled with the who's who of West Egg. And nobody really knows who he is or why he throws these obscene parties. There are equally obscene and outlandish theories about him. But as they say, the truth is more strange
Plot Summary
The main plot of this book is how a guy who was always destined for greatness, after having amassed great big shiny things, now has come to an unknown town to win back the love he'd once lost. This plot I would guess has been recycled and reused multiple times over the years. I like to think this was the first of those. Must have been pretty fresh back then.
The protagonist is the eponymous Gatsby. A mysterious rich guy, who befriends his new neighbor, invites him to one of his famous parties. And in turn, starts on a path that he was confident he'd planned it all ahead and nothing could go wrong. But it inevitable does. He hadn't considered one important detail - human frailty and naive refusal to accept change or defeat.
Gatsby's main goal here is to get back with Daisy, who is now married to a wealthy alpha male Tom. Tom, though not without secrets of himself, does not take easily to Gatsby's sudden appearance in their lives. And is distrustful of the way his wife looks at him. His wife's brother, the guy who is narrating this story to us is Nick, the guy Gatsby befriends to get closer to Daisy. Nick is like the generic narratoresque character in any movie or book ever. Starts with a introduction about everything, inserts himself into every darn incident, and in the end concludes the story about what he'd learnt post the whole incident. Nothing new to see here.
The conclusion of the book is very Citizen Kane-ish. There is that Rosebud point here where the Nick is confronted with how, even after being the popular guy he was Gatsby in the end, had even lesser true friends than that guy you knew in the high school who could flip a coin off girls behind. Being popular and being friends with, are two different things.
Overall this book is a masterpiece. A classic. There are a lot of times in this book when you will pause and think, hey this is exactly what had happened in that book or that movie. That I suppose is mainly cause this book has always had an impact on so many peoples' creative language. I am sure a lot of writers having read this book have in some way changed how they tell their stories.
This I think is the real success of the book. Even after having been in circulation for nearly nine decades this little book like an annoying friend, will never quit teaching writers how to write. And like most friends, even though we hate being preached, we will still agreed to it do what it says. Just because, sometimes these annoying friends are right. Some times.
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| First reason to love - awesome cover! |
This book is like a masterclass in novel writing. I wouldn't be surprised if they make students read this book as homework in every first year of every creative writing course. I mean, if nothing else, this book is very well written. The editing is on point. There are no paragraph out of place, no extra adjectives inserted, no words wastefully used. Everything so crisp and apt. Something that I fail a lot at, come to think of it. But Mr Fitzgerald is a natural at it. I am a fan just by that much.
Characters
Nick Carraway - An unmarried veteran, recently starting out in the bonds business. He is not especially socially adept, but very optimistic and friendly. And as a new resident in a city like West Egg he finds none of those qualities actually amounts to much in here.
Daisy Buchanan - Nick's cousin. The main girl being fought over by the two alpha males. She is sweet, dreamy and the kind of girl who believes it when the fairy tales end with 'they lived happily ever after'.
Tom Buchanan - Daisy's husband, and pure-blood dude. He is rich, strong, flamboyant, charming and a philanderer. He is the kind of guy who has always known success and wealth, and truly believes his destined for nothing less than greatness.
Jay Gatsby - The mysterious filthy rich guy in town. Famous for throwing the most outlandish of parties, everyone is invited. Weekends at his house is filled with the who's who of West Egg. And nobody really knows who he is or why he throws these obscene parties. There are equally obscene and outlandish theories about him. But as they say, the truth is more strange
Plot Summary
The main plot of this book is how a guy who was always destined for greatness, after having amassed great big shiny things, now has come to an unknown town to win back the love he'd once lost. This plot I would guess has been recycled and reused multiple times over the years. I like to think this was the first of those. Must have been pretty fresh back then.
The protagonist is the eponymous Gatsby. A mysterious rich guy, who befriends his new neighbor, invites him to one of his famous parties. And in turn, starts on a path that he was confident he'd planned it all ahead and nothing could go wrong. But it inevitable does. He hadn't considered one important detail - human frailty and naive refusal to accept change or defeat.
Gatsby's main goal here is to get back with Daisy, who is now married to a wealthy alpha male Tom. Tom, though not without secrets of himself, does not take easily to Gatsby's sudden appearance in their lives. And is distrustful of the way his wife looks at him. His wife's brother, the guy who is narrating this story to us is Nick, the guy Gatsby befriends to get closer to Daisy. Nick is like the generic narratoresque character in any movie or book ever. Starts with a introduction about everything, inserts himself into every darn incident, and in the end concludes the story about what he'd learnt post the whole incident. Nothing new to see here.
The conclusion of the book is very Citizen Kane-ish. There is that Rosebud point here where the Nick is confronted with how, even after being the popular guy he was Gatsby in the end, had even lesser true friends than that guy you knew in the high school who could flip a coin off girls behind. Being popular and being friends with, are two different things.
Overall this book is a masterpiece. A classic. There are a lot of times in this book when you will pause and think, hey this is exactly what had happened in that book or that movie. That I suppose is mainly cause this book has always had an impact on so many peoples' creative language. I am sure a lot of writers having read this book have in some way changed how they tell their stories.
This I think is the real success of the book. Even after having been in circulation for nearly nine decades this little book like an annoying friend, will never quit teaching writers how to write. And like most friends, even though we hate being preached, we will still agreed to it do what it says. Just because, sometimes these annoying friends are right. Some times.
