The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

Synopsis

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Review

Rating: ★★★☆☆

This book is a classic, right? a masterpiece, right? Well, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. Not that I didn’t like, just that I expected more from the “great American novel”, from this all-time classic.

The Great Gatsby is a critique to the American dream, which is flawed because it measures success in the wrong way – it is overly materialistic and consumerist. It also critiques elitism and classism in the 1920s American society. This book is still relevant today since Gatsby tries to control people with his wealth, we can see this happening today. People try to use their money to take advantage of others and to fit in. The Great Gatsby narrates the different ways money rules the world. People are also divided by money today in many places. So, I understand why this book is so important and is analyzed in American high schools.

What made me mad about reading this book is finding out that the author plagiarized the work of his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, and never gave her credit for it. This is just one of the many cases where men steal the ideas of women and get praised for these plagiarized ideas, honestly is so sad. I might read some of Zelda’s writing in the future.

The book was okay, but I guess I had really high expectations in this book, that the work didn’t meet. I thought it was fine, but not revolutionary as some people claim this book to be.