This novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th Century. I am getting ready to watch the DiCaprio movie based on the novel and I am also going to read a book called, "Careless People", which is based on the writing of Gatsby, so I figured I'd better read the book again.

I read the novel in college when I took a course called, "Fitzgerald and Hemingway". I was much more taken with Hemingway's stories and his persona and I have very little memory of this fine story.

It is told in the first person by the narrator character, named Nick Carraway. He is new to New York and lives on Long Island next to a mysterious rich man, named Gatsby, who throws elaborate parties every night.

It turns out that Gatsby is in love with Nick's married cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Daisy's husband, Tom, is having an affair with a car mechanic's wife, so he doesn't treat Daisy well at all.

All this leads to murder based on false assumptions and in the end, some people walk away unscathed (or so it seems) while others are either dead or the walking wounded like Carraway.

It is a powerful and sad study in the depravity and selfishness of human nature.

I see more that is fine in this book than when I first read it and it leads me to want to read more about and by Fitzgerald.

It is a very short, but powerful novel, that does not leave much hope for mankind.

anyone who wants to read a story without any descriptive filler - just a fine story, with no excess, start to finish.

how the narrator deals with the stuff at the end of the book - how he is there even if the good time people are not.

it was an entertaining story and a quick, engaging read. This book was written in 1925 and most in it is true today in 2014. I find that remarkable!

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Created Mar 26, 2014 at 10:52am • Submit your own review...