Book #15

The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

I LOVE GATSBY! Counting all the times I have read this out loud to my classes and read it on my own, I have read this book over 30 times. I love it! The book is a love story, a party story, a betrayal story, a murder story, a heartbreak story, a hate story, a self-made man story...all wrapped up into one relatively short novel. What more could one ask for? Fitzgerald creates the perfect scene--the Valley of Ashes is depressing enough to be forgettable, but don't forget it! It houses one of the most important events! New York is modern enough and trendy enough to be romantic enough where anything can happen. And, anything does! One can't forget the contrast of old and new money in East and West Egg, and the quiet cottage of our narrator, Nick Carraway, who quietly observes the goings-on of the rest of characters, and shares his thoughts and observations with us all.

I can only imagine what Fitzgerald must have been feeling as he wrote this book. How must he have felt when he discovered that his love, his "Daisy", had been unfaithful to him? How he must have felt as he soul searched between the good guy and the desperate guy he seemed to view himself to be.

If you haven't read it...read it. Just read it! Then call me and we can talk about it.