The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald

Author: F.Scott Fitzgerald

Publisher: Wordsworth Classics

First published: 1925

Setting: Long Island, New York, USA
Read in January 2014

My Rating ★★★★  4.3

My Waterstones Review

This is a short novel at 115 pages which is as much about the narrator Nick Carraway as it is the subject of the title, Jay Gatz (Gatsby). It is the summer of 1922 and Nick lives in the fictional area of West Egg on Long Island directly across the sound from his second cousin once removed Daisy, who is married to Tom Buchanan, they have a three year old daughter. Nick has a small cottage next to the mansion owned by Mr Gatsby whose lavish parties are the talk of New York. Nick is reacquainted with Daisy and meets Daisy's friend Jordan Baker a golf champion, Daisy is to encourage the pairing up of Jordan and Nick. 'Tom's got some woman in New York.' says Jordan. Soon we are to meet Myrtle the wife of George B Wilson a garage owner and mechanic. Back in 1917, five years earlier, Daisy had met Jay Gatsby, an officer from the nearby Camp Taylor who was waiting to embark for Europe, they had fallen in love with each other.

This is a book about love and obsession driven by wealth. Tom has inherited wealth, old money, and he is obsessed with finding out how Gatsby has obtained his new money, a form of snobbery. Tom suspects Gatsby is involved in bootlegging, prohibition had been introduced in 1920; it was not illegal to own or consume alcohol, and it was abundantly available at Gatsby's parties. Gatsby is obsessed with winning back Daisy, Mrytle is obsessed with milking her position as Tom's mistress and trying to extract herself from her loveless marriage. This is the quintessential book describing the American Roaring Twenties (The Jazz Age) and its decadent living. The Great Gatsby was inspired by the parties that Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda attended when they became the celebrity couple following the publishing success of Fitzgerald's first novel - This Side of Paradise. It predictably ends in tragedy for all concerned.