A review by hyperchaoschidi
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

challenging mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

In reading The Great Gatsby, one thing becomes immediately clear--F. Scott Fitzgerald is deeply in love with his characters, particularly Daisy. His descriptions of them are lush (although occasionally he becomes too enraptured with his own internal euphoria and forgets to use some physical adjectives). As an example, here is one of his initial descriptions of Daisy: 

I looked back at my cousin, who began to ask me questions in her low, thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered “Listen,” a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour.

Fitzgerald's descriptions of Gatsby's parties and the general environment of being alive and young in 1920s New York are equally lush.  His greatest strength as an author (at least in this book) is making you feel like you too are part of the flushed crowds poised between swirling bacchanals. The characters are also decently fleshed out, and while there isn't necessarily any real character development, you do become interested in their internal realities, even if that compulsion is largely a result of Fitzgerald's own clear interest and a desire to understand Fitzgerald himself.

The plot, however, is extremely thin and, at least to me, not particularly satisfying; I felt fortunate when I realized the book was only 156 pages in my edition. It is slow, the threads come together in a way that comes across as extremely random, and the ending felt more like an artistic attempt to capture an ephemeral feeling of Fitzgerald's rather than an actual meaningful ending befitting the book.

In sum: a great read if (1) you are into slow character analysis and want to understand why so many English teachers feel compelled to assign this book; (2) you are seeking to lose yourself in an atmosphere of revelry and 1920s America and don't really care if there is a sustained, exciting plot; or (3) you are a book purist and want to read the book before pursuing one of its various adaptations. Otherwise, I would skip it.
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