The Great Gatsby

By: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narrated by: Mark White

"The Great Gatsby", F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

©2020 Francis Scott Fitzgerald (P)2020 Page2Page

skipped words and passages

I read along as I listened to the audio book and there were several occasions where the narrator missed or skipped words or passages. While I appreciate Fitzgerald's writing style, I didn't care for the story very much.

Narrator

He mispronounced a number of words. Does no one check this. It was annoying and unnecessary

Sort of OK

The reader simply mispronounced too many words. A reviewer made a list of all the mispronounced words. It's simply embarrassing to wince each time you realize that the reader (and the director) failed to know or to spot these errors.

Symbols and caricature

Two decades after first reading this supposed pinnacle of American literature, I thought it was time to give the book another try. After all, what do we really know in high school?

Well, I came away just as underwhelmed this time around. The book is one to be analyzed: it's overtly full of symbols and repeated themes, a possibly (but mostly uninteresting) unreliable narrator, and a clear critique of society. But, to my eye, the empty characters undermine the critique. If the characters don't feel human, relatable, real to you - and to me they don't - then the book reads like an unjustified assertion about human nature and America expressed through symbols.

If you want to dislike and distrust America, and enjoy tracking the meanings of colors or eyes repeatedly referenced throughout, then you will surely find this to be a wonderful book. But if you want a book that makes its point with genuine subtlety, that builds empathy with its characters (however flawed), that makes you laugh or tear up or otherwise wonder how an author breathed life into words, you may want to look elsewhere.

Classic

One of my very favorite classic stories. I could listen to it again and again.