The Great Gatsby

Ahhh.. I read this back in college and I remember at the time learning so much more from our class discussion than I had picked up when reading it alone.  I will be the first to admit I am not a close reader.  I don't always catch the symbolism/hidden meanings unless I know what I'm looking for.  So many hidden things in The Great Gatsby that make it such an interesting novel.

I'm sure most of us were forced into reading it at some point as required reading for some class.  Some enjoyed it, some detested it, some just did it to do it and some were just blech.  I rarely re-read, but this one was fun to re-read for our Books & Bars April book.

What was most fun, was meeting up at local establishment with the same name as the book. ;) We will also be catching the new movie when it comes out next month and I'm pretty excited  Hopefully, it won't be completely horrible since I rarely like movies made from books I like.

So, let's talk about the characters in The Great Gatsby...

Daisy - Such a horrible horrible girl.  So shallow.  I really feel that as a girl, she must have loved Gatsby fiercely, but only like a teenager girl can blindly love someone she really hasn't spent time with.  When it came to picking him or her husband she would have maybe gone with him (yay, he's rich) until she found out HOW he made his money.  Regardless, I think Gatsby would have treated her better and been a better 'partner' than her stupid evil husband.

Gatsby - Ahh.. I feel for him, but he's also kind of a stalker.  He buys a house where he can SEE the light at the end of the dock of a girl who he was in love with over a decade ago and whom he's structured his life after so he can win her even though she's married?? Yeah... money can't buy everything old sport.

Nick - One of the most unreliable narrators in any book written.  He so isn't as good and kind and helping as he tries to make himself out to be.  He treats Jordan like crap.  He treats his 'fiance' out west like crap and should have done more to save Gatsby and well so much more.

Tom - A douche.  Seriously.  I get that it was a different time period, but he had his own apartment to screw his girlfriend and yet, how dare Daisy act on her feelings??? And way to just get rid of your competition in such a cruel spiteful evil way. 

I like this book and really want to spend more time this summer reading more of Fitzgerald's stuff and perhaps re-reading, Ragtime.  Did you read The Great Gatsby? Anything else by Fitzgerald? What other books set in the 1920s do you recommend?

Don't forget to vote on the side bar for May's Group Read!