Summer Reads: Book One {The Great Gatsby}

One of my big plans this summer is to read, read, READ. I got into a non-reading rut these past few months and it's kinda bumming me out. So, I'm going to read more, and I'm going to write about it here.  Sound good to you guys? I hope so....

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The Great Gatsby is that book that everyone and her brother seems to have been assigned somewhere in middle school. Which, after reading it, kinda surprises me. This is, by most considerations, Fitzgerald's best work ever, not just the book he is best known for writing. It is a snapshot into the world of the roaring 20's - the spirit, the world, the people. Jay Gatsby is the embodiment of the man of the generation - a desire for money, notoriety, ambition, greed, and the ability to create oneself. Gatsby is the rise and fall of the American Dream.

The story is also a love story - or love stories. I'd call it a love triangle, but it's got more sides to it than the traditional three. Gatsby's love for Daisy is an interesting and important aspect of the story - a subtle driving force for events. It brings Gatsby to become  Nick's next door neighbor, it fuels most interactions in the book, and it weaves itself within Fitzgerald's words.

I consider myself fortunate to not have been assigned this book any time in my academic career. Because, really? This book would have been a book that I would have hated. My teachers in middle school or high school would have over discussed Gatsby and the symbology and the whatever and would have absolutely ruined this book for me.

That being said, I completely loved this book. I loved the peek into the 1920's worold. I even liked how it was all white people problems for page after page. It was an engaging read and I found myself hanging on his every word. I am totally enamored with F. Scott-Fitzgerald's writing. The way he describes the simplest things leaves me in awe.

I found Nick to be an interesting person to watch the whole plot play out. I enjoyed the quirky Jay Gatsby. I got annoyed with Daisy and then got annoyed with myself for getting annoyed with her.

The short of it is? I cannot wait to see Leonardo DiCaprio as the Great Gatsby.

Pages: 180
First Line: In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.
Favorite Line: 
Last Line: So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. 
Recommended: If you haven't read it yet, do. If you've read it before, read it again.