The Great Gatsby

Hello! Welcome to The Young Reader's Review! So, last time I reviewed the classic comic that will never age: The Adventures of Tintin. But then, I suddenly realized that I haven’t talked on this blog about a classic novel in a really long time. The last one I did was Brave New World in July last year… time really flies. Anyway, this is the reason why today I chose to review a classic novel that you MUST read! It was seriously utterly amazing. So today I am reviewing, The Great Gatsby by the grand F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

I personally came across this book by accident, I literally found it laying around. So I thought, that I’d give it a go since a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. I was very impressed. Everything; the writing, the story, the plot, was so charismatic and addictive. Once you start reading this rather short book, you can’t stop, you just keep going until you realize that you’re already done with it and a morose look takes over your face and then you start becoming emotional (bookworms understand this awful feeling). But anyway, let’s get to the story.

So in this book we have a narrator who will show you this story with his own eyes and tell this story with his own words, and his name is Nick Carraway. Nick is a young man from Minnesota and he decides to go to New York in 1922 to learn about the bond business to become a rich bond salesman (for those who don’t know, a “bond” is a debt investment, which means that a person (an investor) gives money to an entity (a business for example) for some time and this entity will give the money back at a fixed or variable interest rate). He has a house in West Egg, which is a district of Rhode Island. Even though this district is described as a rich neighborhood, it isn’t very elegant nor posh, and is mostly composed of young men who have just started being wealthy. But Nick isn’t like them. He is already fairly well-heeled, has already gone to a prestigious university, and already has connections with people in East Egg. East Egg is another district in Rhode Island, which is in a higher social class than West Egg and is known for being the home to prosperous and very wealthy people.

Nick’s cousin, Daisy, and her husband Tom Buchanan, Nick’s quondam Yale classmate, live in East Egg. One night, Daisy invites her cousin to come dine at their house along with Daisy’s friend, Jordan Baker, a professional golfer. When Nick meets her, he is immediately charmed by her and they have a romantic relationship later on in the story. Jordan tells him that night, that Tom is unfaithful with Daisy and has a mistress. His mistress is called Myrtle Wilson and lives in a sort of industrial dumping ground in the valley of ashes which is found between the town (New York) and the suburbs. That night, they talk about a “Gatsby” and Nick recalls that he is his neighbor.

That night, he spots his mysterious neighbor, Gatsby staring and stretching his arms towards a green light coming from East Egg.  Nick looks away and then looks back and he’s already is already gone.           

A couple of days later, Tom invites Nick to come meet his mistress. Myrtle is a middle aged modest woman who runs a small car garage and gas station in the valley of ashes. After Tom, Nick and her go into town where Tom gets Myrtle a dog, they then go to Tom and Myrtle’s city apartment. Myrtle’s friend come over and they get drunk. But then, still intoxicated, Myrtle starts talking about Daisy to Tom, which ends with Tom brutally breaking her nose.

You guys must be wondering why I haven’t talked about Gatsby that much yet. I mean, I can perfectly understand why you would think that, the book is called The Great Gatsby. So who in the world is Gatsby? To answer that question, nobody really knows who Gatsby is. Well at least not in the beginning of the story. All we know is that he hosts extravagant parties frequently in his humongous gothic mansion.

To Nick’s great surprise, he eventually gets invited to one of Gatsby’s parties. In this book, one of my favorite part is the parties. They are just so well described (like everything in the book really) that you can almost hear the rhythm of the jazz music being played, and smell and taste all the sumptuous and lavish foods…It’s amazing and pure genius. What really surprised me is in general Mr. Fitzgerald’s writing style. The writing seems so detailed and the words are extremely well picked and they make you feel as if you’re in the 1920’s.

Coming back to the story, so Nick of course goes to this fashionable and popular party and he stumbles upon Jordan Baker…and Mr. Gatsby. I am not going to say more because I don’t want to spoil anything since the end of this book is extremely unexpected!

I highly recommend this dazzling and page-turning book, not just because the writing is breathtaking, but also because the story is brilliant and the ending really surprised me. This story is simply a little 171 page masterpiece, and I think that this is a must-read classic. I hoped that you liked this review, and that it made you want to read this book, or if you have already read it maybe even re-read it. I had a really fun time writing it. So see you guys next time and don’t forget to like this, share this, and to leave a comment below! (❁´▽`❁)