I read this book in high school and loved it and that feeling still remains after this reading. I picked this book up because my daughter is reading this and wanted to be able to talk about it in a more in depth way. The narrator of this book is Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbor, although he is definitely from a different socioeconomic class than Gatsby is. At the beginning of the novel, Nick has only heard of Gatsby and his parties. Everyone seems to have been to one. One night Nick gets invited to a party and it absolutely changes his life. We learn about a man whose reputation really outshines his substance. He is rumored to have studied at Oxford, been a war hero and has so, so many outlandish stories. But when we get down to it, we learn that Gatsby is tragically flawed and that is his undoing.
Although some might find the plot slow, I didn't feel that way at all. The prose and tension building is beautifully written. It really makes you sit back and really re-assess your priorities in life (much much less than a cancer diagnosis is but there we are). Its deconstruction of the American Dream is absolutely brilliant. This novel, though short, definitely deserves its status as the great American novel.
I am selling my copy - you can find it
here.
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