{Thoughts On} The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Title: The Great Gatsby
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pages: 159
Genre: Classic
Source: my own copy

Summary from Goodreads:

Jay Gatsby is a self-made man, famed for his decadent champagne-drenched parties. Despite being surrounded by Long Island's bright and beautiful, Gatsby longs only for Daisy Buchanan. In shimmering prose, Fitzgerald shows Gatsby pursue his dream to its tragic conclusion.The Great Gatsby is an elegiac and exquisite portrait of the American Dream

I have a wonderful hardcover from the 50s that I bought at a library sale years ago. I so prefer it's plain design to the awful paperback copy with the floating eyes. 

I had thought that I read this one in my early twenties but I recalled nothing from the story. I decided to read it since the movie version is out. Now that I have finished it, I've realized that there is not a single person who would be interested in watching it with me so it will be a Redbox rental instead.

I enjoyed this look into the rich back in the 20s. I haven't read much from that time period so it was interesting to see how Fitzgerald wrote the people of that day. The descriptions of the time period and especially those of Gatsby's house were well written and I loved that I felt like I was there. 

Jay Gatsby was an interesting character but at the end was still a mystery to me. I was left wondering what was real and what wasn't. He seemed so uncharacteristically eager near the end. So different from the description of him at the beginning. I was somewhat baffled by his attraction to Daisy. She seemed like such a boring, pampered woman who did pretty much nothing during the entire novel. 

I must say that the language got increasingly easier to read the more I got into the book. I think that I need to read classics more frequently but I'm a bit terrified of them because of the differences in turns of phrases between then and now. 

Overall, I enjoyed The Great Gatsby and look forward to reading more Fitzgerald, and classics in general, soon.